Question

In the Model class I use return $query->row(); to return single rows and return $query->result(); when returning multiple rows.

On a single page I have to return single rows and multiple rows from 2 separate tables.

Table users contains general information like the user name, full name, and email address.
Table user_links contains links submitted by the respective user and has multiple rows for each user.

My query

        $this->db->select('*');
        $this->db->from('users');
        $this->db->join('user_links', "user_links.user_id = users.user_id");
        $this->db->where('users.user_id', $user_id);
        $this->db->where('user_links.user_id', $user_id);
        $query = $this->db->get();
        return $query->row(); 

In my controller I load the query in my view by

$data['row'] = $this->User_model->user_read($user_id);,

$user_id being the 3rd URL segment containing the unique user id.

Finally, in my view I retrieve rows by echo $row->first_name;

This works for single rows but how can I create a foreach loop for user links? The goal is to avoid loops for single rows and use them just for retrieving multiple rows.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you want to get both the user data as well as user_links data with a single query while avoiding iterating through it to get the user’s data. While this may be possible using result_array, I would advise against it since you will get 0 results when there are no entries in user_links for that particular user.

My suggestion is that you use two queries, one to get the user from the user table, another to get user’s links from user_links table. This will also help you avoid joins.