Question

I work with a proprietary server-side language that sits as a layer on top of a Oracle database. With this language, you can use dummy tables to take an existing record structure filled with data and run queries on that record structure joining to it as if it were a table.

Here’s a simple example:

    //DECLARE THE RECORD STRUCTURE
    record data_out (
        1 prsnl [*]
            2 person_id = f8
            2 full_name = vc
            2 position = vc
            2 status = vc
            2 last_access_dt_tm = vc
            2 role [*]
                3 role_name = vc
                3 role_id = f8  
    ) with persistscript

    //QUERY PEOPLE
    select into "NL:"
    from person p
    where p.whatever_field = "QUALIFIER"
    detail

        a = a + 1
        stat = alterlist(data_out->prsnl, a)

        data_out->prsnl[a]->person_id = p.person_id
        data_out->prsnl[a]->full_name = p.name_full_formatted
        data_out->prsnl[a]->position = p.position

    with time=10

    //USE A DUMMY TABLE TO PULL IN MORE DATA FOR EACH PERSON
    select into "NL:"
    from (dumt d with seq = size(data_out->prsnl,5))
        ,rnd_role_def rrd
        ,rnd_r_assign_hx rah
    plan d
    join rah
        where rah.team_id = data_in->team_id
        and rah.prsnl_id = data_out->prsnl[d.seq]->person_id
        and rah.handoff_dt_tm > cnvtdatetime(curdate-90,curtime)
    join rrd
        where rrd.role_id = rah.role_id
    order by d.seq, rrd.role_name
    head d.seq
        i = 0
    head rrd.role_name
        i = i + 1
        stat = altlist(data_out->prsnl[d.seq]->role, i)

        data_out->prsnl[d.seq]->role[i]->role_id = rrd.role_id
        data_out->prsnl[d.seq]->role[i]->role_name = rrd.role_name

    with time=10

Does PHP+MySQL have anything like this? If so, could somehow point me to a link with more info or a how-to. Googling hasn’t been turning up anything for me–probably searching for the wrong keywords.

Answer 1

Use temporary tables:

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp1

A temporary table will persist through the current session. You can either define the fields of a temporary table through normal CREATE TABLE syntax:

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp1(
    `id` INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `name` VARCHAR(50),
)

… or you can create a temp table and allow query data to define the columns:

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp1;
INSERT INTO temp1
  SELECT id, name FROM normal_table

Documentation

• MySQL CREATE TABLE syntax – http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/create-table.html
• MySQL Temporary table tutorial – http://www.tutorialspoint.com/mysql/mysql-temporary-tables.htm