DB Driver Reference
This is the platform-independent base DB implementation class. This class will not be called directly. Rather, the adapter class for the specific database will extend and instantiate it.
The how-to material for this has been split over several articles. This article is intended to be a reference for them.
Important
Not all methods are supported by all database drivers, some of them may fail (and return FALSE) if the underlying driver does not support them.
- class CI_DB_driver
- initialize()
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Initialize database settings, establish a connection to the database.
- db_connect($persistent = TRUE)
- Parameters:
$persistent (
bool
) – Whether to establish a persistent connection or a regular one
- Returns:
Database connection resource/object or FALSE on failure
- Return type:
mixed
Establish a connection with the database.
Note
The returned value depends on the underlying driver in use. For example, a
mysqli
instance will be returned with the ‘mysqli’ driver.
- db_pconnect()
- Returns:
Database connection resource/object or FALSE on failure
- Return type:
mixed
Establish a persistent connection with the database.
Note
This method is just an alias for
db_connect(TRUE)
.
- reconnect()
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Keep / reestablish the database connection if no queries have been sent for a length of time exceeding the server’s idle timeout.
- db_select([$database = ''])
- Parameters:
$database (
string
) – Database name
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Select / switch the current database.
- db_set_charset($charset)
- Parameters:
$charset (
string
) – Character set name
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Set client character set.
- platform()
- Returns:
Platform name
- Return type:
string
The name of the platform in use (mysql, mssql, etc…).
- version()
- Returns:
The version of the database being used
- Return type:
string
Database version number.
- query($sql[, $binds = FALSE[, $return_object = NULL]])
- Parameters:
$sql (
string
) – The SQL statement to execute$binds (
array
) – An array of binding data$return_object (
bool
) – Whether to return a result object or not
- Returns:
TRUE for successful “write-type” queries, CI_DB_result instance (method chaining) on “query” success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
mixed
Execute an SQL query.
Accepts an SQL string as input and returns a result object upon successful execution of a “read” type query.
Returns:
Boolean TRUE upon successful execution of a “write type” queries
Boolean FALSE upon failure
CI_DB_result
object for “read type” queries
- simple_query($sql)
- Parameters:
$sql (
string
) – The SQL statement to execute
- Returns:
Whatever the underlying driver’s “query” function returns
- Return type:
mixed
A simplified version of the
query()
method, appropriate for use when you don’t need to get a result object or to just send a query to the database and not care for the result.
- affected_rows()
- Returns:
Number of rows affected
- Return type:
int
Returns the number of rows changed by the last executed query.
Useful for checking how much rows were created, updated or deleted during the last executed query.
- trans_strict([$mode = TRUE])
- Parameters:
$mode (
bool
) – Strict mode flag
- Return type:
void
Enable/disable transaction “strict” mode.
When strict mode is enabled, if you are running multiple groups of transactions and one group fails, all subsequent groups will be rolled back.
If strict mode is disabled, each group is treated autonomously, meaning a failure of one group will not affect any others.
- trans_off()
- Return type:
void
Disables transactions at run-time.
- trans_start([$test_mode = FALSE])
- Parameters:
$test_mode (
bool
) – Test mode flag
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Start a transaction.
- trans_complete()
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Complete Transaction.
- trans_status()
- Returns:
TRUE if the transaction succeeded, FALSE if it failed
- Return type:
bool
Lets you retrieve the transaction status flag to determine if it has failed.
- trans_active()
- Returns:
TRUE if a transaction is active, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Determines if a transaction is currently active.
- compile_binds($sql, $binds)
- Parameters:
$sql (
string
) – The SQL statement$binds (
array
) – An array of binding data
- Returns:
The updated SQL statement
- Return type:
string
Compiles an SQL query with the bind values passed for it.
- is_write_type($sql)
- Parameters:
$sql (
string
) – The SQL statement
- Returns:
TRUE if the SQL statement is of “write type”, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Determines if a query is of a “write” type (such as INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) or “read” type (i.e. SELECT).
- elapsed_time([$decimals = 6])
- Parameters:
$decimals (
int
) – The number of decimal places
- Returns:
The aggregate query elapsed time, in microseconds
- Return type:
string
Calculate the aggregate query elapsed time.
- total_queries()
- Returns:
The total number of queries executed
- Return type:
int
Returns the total number of queries that have been executed so far.
- last_query()
- Returns:
The last query executed
- Return type:
string
Returns the last query that was executed.
- escape($str)
- Parameters:
$str (
mixed
) – The value to escape, or an array of multiple ones
- Returns:
The escaped value(s)
- Return type:
mixed
Escapes input data based on type, including boolean and NULLs.
- escape_str($str[, $like = FALSE])
- Parameters:
$str (
mixed
) – A string value or array of multiple ones$like (
bool
) – Whether or not the string will be used in a LIKE condition
- Returns:
The escaped string(s)
- Return type:
mixed
Escapes string values.
Warning
The returned strings do NOT include quotes around them.
- escape_like_str($str)
- Parameters:
$str (
mixed
) – A string value or array of multiple ones
- Returns:
The escaped string(s)
- Return type:
mixed
Escape LIKE strings.
Similar to
escape_str()
, but will also escape the%
and_
wildcard characters, so that they don’t cause false-positives in LIKE conditions.Important
The
escape_like_str()
method uses ‘!’ (exclamation mark) to escape special characters for LIKE conditions. Because this method escapes partial strings that you would wrap in quotes yourself, it cannot automatically add theESCAPE '!'
condition for you, and so you’ll have to manually do that.
- primary($table)
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – Table name
- Returns:
The primary key name, FALSE if none
- Return type:
string
Retrieves the primary key of a table.
Note
If the database platform does not support primary key detection, the first column name may be assumed as the primary key.
- count_all([$table = ''])
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – Table name
- Returns:
Row count for the specified table
- Return type:
int
Returns the total number of rows in a table, or 0 if no table was provided.
- list_tables([$constrain_by_prefix = FALSE])
- Parameters:
$constrain_by_prefix (
bool
) – TRUE to match table names by the configured dbprefix
- Returns:
Array of table names or FALSE on failure
- Return type:
array
Gets a list of the tables in the current database.
- table_exists($table_name)
- Parameters:
$table_name (
string
) – The table name
- Returns:
TRUE if that table exists, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Determine if a particular table exists.
- list_fields($table)
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – The table name
- Returns:
Array of field names or FALSE on failure
- Return type:
array
Gets a list of the field names in a table.
- field_exists($field_name, $table_name)
- Parameters:
$table_name (
string
) – The table name$field_name (
string
) – The field name
- Returns:
TRUE if that field exists in that table, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Determine if a particular field exists.
- field_data($table)
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – The table name
- Returns:
Array of field data items or FALSE on failure
- Return type:
array
Gets a list containing field data about a table.
- escape_identifiers($item)
- Parameters:
$item (
mixed
) – The item or array of items to escape
- Returns:
The input item(s), escaped
- Return type:
mixed
Escape SQL identifiers, such as column, table and names.
- insert_string($table, $data)
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – The target table$data (
array
) – An associative array of key/value pairs
- Returns:
The SQL INSERT statement, as a string
- Return type:
string
Generate an INSERT statement string.
- update_string($table, $data, $where)
- Parameters:
$table (
string
) – The target table$data (
array
) – An associative array of key/value pairs$where (
mixed
) – The WHERE statement conditions
- Returns:
The SQL UPDATE statement, as a string
- Return type:
string
Generate an UPDATE statement string.
- call_function($function)
- Parameters:
$function (
string
) – Function name
- Returns:
The function result
- Return type:
string
Runs a native PHP function , using a platform agnostic wrapper.
- cache_set_path([$path = ''])
- Parameters:
$path (
string
) – Path to the cache directory
- Return type:
void
Sets the directory path to use for caching storage.
- cache_on()
- Returns:
TRUE if caching is on, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Enable database results caching.
- cache_off()
- Returns:
TRUE if caching is on, FALSE if not
- Return type:
bool
Disable database results caching.
- cache_delete([$segment_one = ''[, $segment_two = '']])
- Parameters:
$segment_one (
string
) – First URI segment$segment_two (
string
) – Second URI segment
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Delete the cache files associated with a particular URI.
- cache_delete_all()
- Returns:
TRUE on success, FALSE on failure
- Return type:
bool
Delete all cache files.
- close()
- Return type:
void
Close the DB Connection.
- display_error([$error = ''[, $swap = ''[, $native = FALSE]]])
- Parameters:
$error (
string
) – The error message$swap (
string
) – Any “swap” values$native (
bool
) – Whether to localize the message
- Return type:
void
- Returns:
Displays the DB error screensends the application/views/errors/error_db.php template
- Return type:
string
Display an error message and stop script execution.
The message is displayed using the application/views/errors/error_db.php template.
- protect_identifiers($item[, $prefix_single = FALSE[, $protect_identifiers = NULL[, $field_exists = TRUE]]])
- Parameters:
$item (
string
) – The item to work with$prefix_single (
bool
) – Whether to apply the dbprefix even if the input item is a single identifier$protect_identifiers (
bool
) – Whether to quote identifiers$field_exists (
bool
) – Whether the supplied item contains a field name or not
- Returns:
The modified item
- Return type:
string
Takes a column or table name (optionally with an alias) and applies the configured dbprefix to it.
Some logic is necessary in order to deal with column names that include the path.
Consider a query like this:
SELECT * FROM hostname.database.table.column AS c FROM hostname.database.table
Or a query with aliasing:
SELECT m.member_id, m.member_name FROM members AS m
Since the column name can include up to four segments (host, DB, table, column) or also have an alias prefix, we need to do a bit of work to figure this out and insert the table prefix (if it exists) in the proper position, and escape only the correct identifiers.
This method is used extensively by the Query Builder class.