Question

I have to order a selection by CONVERT(`codExtern`, SIGNED) with codeIgniter.
If I use it like this:

$this->db->order_by(" CONVERT(`codExtern`, SIGNED) ");

the codeigniter puts the SIGNED word between `-s, like:

CONVERT(codExtern, `INTEGER` )

How can I make it work?

Answer 1

Unfortunately you can’t disable identifier protection with parameters like in the select() method. CI will call CI_DB_driver::_protect_identifiers on the input if it has a , in it.

Currently you can workaround this if you set the supposedly “private” property $_protect_identifiers to false on your $this->db before calling the order_by method so when it runs it will skip this, and then flip it back (it helps with problematic column/table names for example). This is probably not a really good idea, in future CI versions this property might became really private and your code will break.

Unfortunately the database library cannot be extended, but if you are not afraid of modifying the files under system you can create an exception in the order_by() method just like the “order by random()” got one.