[SOLVED] MySQL return issue

[Sephiriz]

I've coded for a while, but have been on a nearly 2 year hiatus, so I'm currently refreshing my memory by trying to code simple things.

 

I have a unit table, and I have an owner_id column, which is an int data type, unsigned.  In a test row I made, I set owner_id to 1.

I send the appropriate query to the database, and I then get the result, which SHOULD be an integer, but for some reason, I keep on getting a number 1 in a string variable.  Why won't I get an integer result if the data type is integer?

 

$query = "SELECT * from units";
$result = $mysqli->query($query);

/* numeric array */
while ($row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC) )
{
	//print_r($row);
	echo gettype($row['owner_id']);
}

 

 

[hitman6003]

The type doesn't really matter in PHP since it's dynamically typed.  You can force it to typecast if you like, but there's no reason to since PHP will convert from string to int, and vice-versa, when necessary.

 

Reference Type Juggling in the php manual...here's an english link:

 

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.types.type-juggling.php

[Sephiriz]

I understand that, but at no point did I indicate that it should be anything but an integer.

 

Um, quick question I guess then: can the various parts of an array be different types of variables? Like $test[0] is a string, and $test[1] is an integer?  Or is $test an array where all values are strings.

[hitman6003]

Arrays can contain mixed variable types.

 

You may want to read this page for further information:

 

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php

[Sephiriz]

Alright, but nobody knows why if I pull an integer from a table, that when I use fetch_assoc() it turns the result into a string?

[hitman6003]

It doesn't matter in the end if it is returned as a string or int...php will convert it to the type that it needs to.

[Sephiriz]

My problem is that I want to use the result from that value in a function which makes sure that the value passed through is an integer by using is_int().  That's my problem, and I know there are work-arounds, but I'm genuinely curious as to why I'm getting the result I'm getting, because nobody else has ever said anything about all mysql results being automatically turned into strings, even if the result was not in a VARCHAR field or something.

 

[hitman6003]

If you are pulling the value from the database, then you have presumably checked the value previously to insure that it is an integer.  If so, just typecast it to an int before passing to your function.

 

You may also want to consider using the is_numeric function instead of is_int....

 

http://www.php.net/is_numeric

[hitman6003]

After reading through the manual, it looks like having a decimal point ( . ) in your number will cause it to be read as a numeric string, rather than an integer...from the man page on integers:

 

Integers can be specified in decimal (10-based), hexadecimal (16-based) or octal (8-based) notation, optionally preceded by a sign (- or +).

 

If you use the octal notation, you must precede the number with a 0 (zero), to use hexadecimal notation precede the number with 0x.

 

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/language.types.integer.php

 

EDIT:

 

here is an example of how php does it's type comparisons:

 

$int = 10;
$float = 10.55;
$string = "10.90";
$not_a_number = "abcd";

echo "<pre>
int $int: 
	is_int:     " . is_int($int) . "
	is_float:   " . is_float($int) . "
	is_string:  " . is_string($int) . "
	is_numeric: " . is_numeric($int) . "

float $float:
	is_int:     " . is_int($float) . "
	is_float:   " . is_float($float) . "
	is_string:  " . is_string($float) . "
	is_numeric: " . is_numeric($float) . "

string $string:
	is_int:     " . is_int($string) . "
	is_float:   " . is_float($string) . "
	is_string:  " . is_string($string) . "
	is_numeric: " . is_numeric($string) . "

not_a_number $not_a_number:
	is_int:     " . is_int($not_a_number) . "
	is_float:   " . is_float($not_a_number) . "
	is_string:  " . is_string($not_a_number) . "
	is_numeric: " . is_numeric($not_a_number);

[btherl]

Seems no-one has answered the OP's question..

 

The answer is "no".  You should not get an integer, even if the column is an integer type.  You should get a string, or the null type if the value in the column is null.  End of story

 

http://sg.php.net/manual/en/function.mysqli-fetch-array.php

 

"Returns an array of strings that corresponds to the fetched row or NULL if there are no more rows in resultset."

[hitman6003]

I swear I looked in the manual for that exact sentence and didn't see it....I must be going crazy

[Sephiriz]

Alright, thanks for everyones help.  I suppose that I'll just need to do a typecasting then.  Appreciate the help.