how to get variables from column names

Question

$sq = "select * from arts where id = :aid limit 1";
$st = $db->prepare($sq);
$st->execute([":aid" => $id]);
$row = $st->fetch();

now, instead of:

$cat = $row['cat'];
$title = $row['title'];
$subtitle = $row['subtitle'];
... so on

I need something like:

foreach($column_name as $el){
    $var_name = $el;
}

You mean like https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-keys.php ? — paskl, Aug 12 '21 at 16:13
If you mean you want to set a variable with the same name as the column name, this isn't the best idea. Thats what arrays handle a lot better. — Nigel Ren, Aug 12 '21 at 16:14
As the comments above show, your intention is a bit ambiguous here. Perhaps you could give an example of the *end result* you want? — IMSoP, Aug 12 '21 at 16:15

AbraCadaver · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-12T16:21:40.713

1

There's rarely a good reason to do this, just use the array. However, you can use variable variables from the keys if there is only one row as you show:

foreach($row as $key => $val){
    $$key = $val;
}

There is also extract() but may be even worse practice.

edited Aug 12 '21 at 16:21

answered Aug 12 '21 at 16:15

AbraCadaver

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thansk a lot. If I have a lot of columns - the code is much shorter - a good reason - isn't it? – qadenza Aug 12 '21 at 16:20
@qadenza In general, variable variables are not very useful. How will the rest of the code use the variables if it doesn't know what the column names are? – Barmar Aug 12 '21 at 16:21
@Barmar - of course I know the column names - this is a table for a blog - so - `id, date, title, subtitle...` as usual – qadenza Aug 12 '21 at 16:23

how to get variables from column names

1 Answers1