When developing CodeIgniter model methods, I find that I consistently return desirable values depending on the type of database write that is executed. It is often important to differentiate between a query that has run successfully versus a query that has actually changed a record.
For an update or delete query, I'll return the number of affected rows -- this will be most helpful to controller methods that call it. If you are performing logging (to keep track of change history), then ONLY log something if there is a change to the row; otherwise you are unnecessarily bloating your change history logs.
public function update(int $id, array $newData) :int
{
$oldData = $this->db->get_where('mytable', ['id' => $id])->row_array();
if ($this->db->update('mytable', $newData, ['id' => $id])) {
$affectedRows = $this->db->affected_rows();
if ($affectedRows) {
$this->Log->mytableUpdate($id, $newData, $oldData);
}
return $affectedRows;
}
return 0;
}
For insert queries, I always return the auto-incremented id of the newly inserted row via insert_id()
.
If using the PDO driver with PostgreSQL, or using the Interbase driver, this function requires a $name parameter, which specifies the appropriate sequence to check for the insert id.
public function insert(array $newData) :int
{
if ($this->db->insert('mytable', $newData)) {
$newId = $this->db->insert_id(); // or insert_id('mytable')
$this->Log->mytableInsert($newId, $newData);
return $newId;
}
return 0;
}
Having consistent return types in your model methods will make your project easier to develop and maintain. The script that calls these model methods will be able to quickly assess the outcome by making a "falsey" check.