Question

i have this code which i am trying to use in order to diplay table column names as checkbox values, i mean something liek this:

$section = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM forma");  
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($section)){
echo "<input type='checkbox' name='data[]' value='" . $firstrow[''] . "' />";

}

I have it in the wrong way, but how should i do in order to print column names as checkboxes, in an automatic way, not manually.

How to reach it using PDO?

$q = $dbh->prepare(“DESCRIBE forma”);
$q->execute(); $table_fields
= $q->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN);

Thanks

Answer 1

Foreword: The MySQL extension is marked as deprecated, better use mysqli or PDO

---

Though there are functions like mysql_field_name or SHOW COLUMNS I’d suggest using the INFORMATION_SCHEMA as it gives you more flexibility.

<?php
$database = 'test';
$table = 'forma';

$mysql = mysql_connect('localhost', 'localonly', 'localonly') or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db('test', $mysql) or die(mysql_error($mysql)); // selecting db is not not necessary in this case

$query = sprintf("
    SELECT
        COLUMN_NAME, COLUMN_TYPE
    FROM
        INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
    WHERE
        TABLE_SCHEMA = '%s'
        AND TABLE_NAME = '%s'
",
    mysql_real_escape_string($database),
    mysql_real_escape_string($table)
);
$result = mysql_query($query, $mysql) or die(mysql_error($mysql));

while( false!=($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) ) {
    $name = htmlspecialchars($row['COLUMN_NAME']);
    $type = htmlspecialchars($row['COLUMN_TYPE']);
    printf("<input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"col[]\" value=\"%s\" />%s (%s)<br />\r\n", $name, $name, $type);
}

same thing using PDO

<?php
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=test;charset=utf8', 'localonly', 'localonly');
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('
    SELECT
        COLUMN_NAME, COLUMN_TYPE
    FROM
        INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
    WHERE
        TABLE_SCHEMA = :database
        AND TABLE_NAME = :table
');
$stmt->execute( array('database'=>'test', 'table'=>'forma') );
foreach( $stmt as $row ) {
    $name = htmlspecialchars($row['COLUMN_NAME']);
    $type = htmlspecialchars($row['COLUMN_TYPE']);
    printf("<input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"col[]\" value=\"%s\" />%s (%s)<br />\r\n", $name, $name, $type);
}