Question

My table is setup like this:

id | config_name | config_value

1 | language | English
2 | currency | $
3 | date_format | M d, Y
etc…

I’m trying to query the database to use this information as needed throughout a page. There may be 100 rows in this table, but I only need to use specific ones on a page. That’s why I need to specify which one(s) I’m using. For example:

$config->language; would echo “English”
$config->currency; would echo “$”, etc.

How would I set this up?

I know how to get the values and echo the same thing over and over again in a while loop:

$systemconfig = mysql_query("SELECT config_name, config_value FROM system_config");             

    while($configs = mysql_fetch_array( $systemconfig )) {
        echo "The value of ".$configs['config_name']."is: ".$configs['config_value'];

    } // end while

… but I don’t want to be stuck in that loop as it cycles through all the configs in the database. That’s why I would like to be able to echo the specific config values I specify throughout the page like mentioned above, ie: $config->language

Could someone enlighten me?

Answer 1

Well this is pretty straight forward, you have to walk yourself through the thought process:

• Create an object with a constructor that connects and grabs config info
• Have call the object when needed.

Here is a rough object example (you fill in the code needed):

<?php
class config
{
    protected $self = array();

    function __construct()  // a constructor runs on initialization of object
    {
       $q = mysql_query("SELECT config_name, config_value FROM system_config");             

        while($configs = mysql_fetch_array( $q )) {
            $this->add($configs['config_name'], $configs['config_value']);

        }
    }

    function add($key, $value){
        $this->self[$key] = $value;
    }

    function __get( $name = null ) {   // this is a getter that you call
        if(isset($this->self[$name])){ 
            return $this->self[$name];
        } 
        return false;  // this is returned if element doesn't exist
    }
}

$config = new config;
echo $config->language;
?>