Question

I have this

SELECT *
FROM categoryTable
WHERE categoryId NOT
IN (

SELECT categoryId
FROM userMenuTable
WHERE cookieId = 'bang4b544417a41b6'
)

but I would like it use codeigniters active record class so using

$this->db

syntax, I was hoping someone would help me convert this?

Answer 1

Two ways to do this:

Plain SQL:

$this->db->query('SELECT * FROM categoryTable WHERE categoryId NOT IN (
    SELECT categoryId FROM userMenuTable WHERE cookieId = "bang4b544417a41b6"
)');

Active Record + Plain WHERE SQL

$this->db->where('categoryId', 'NOT IN (
    SELECT categoryId FROM userMenuTable WHERE cookieId = "bang4b544417a41b6"
)', FALSE);

$this->db->get('categoryTable');

You can put Plain SQL into a WHERE clause by adding FALSE in as the third argument in db->where();

It is a shame there is nothing neater for doing this, but Active Record is only intended for simple queries with joins, orders, limits, etc.