PHP mysqli fetch_field() Function

Example - Object Oriented style

Return the next field (column) in the result-set, then print each field's name, table, and max length:

<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost","my_user","my_password","my_db");

if ($mysqli -> connect_errno) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . $mysqli -> connect_error;
exit();
}

$sql = "SELECT Lastname, Age FROM Persons ORDER BY Lastname";

if ($result = $mysqli -> query($sql)) {
// Get field information for all fields
while ($fieldinfo = $result -> fetch_field()) {
    printf("Name: %s\n", $fieldinfo -> name);
    printf("Table: %s\n", $fieldinfo -> table);
    printf("Max. Len: %d\n", $fieldinfo -> max_length);
  }
$result -> free_result();
}

$mysqli -> close();
?>

Look at example of procedural style at the bottom.

Definition and Usage

The fetch_field() / mysqli_fetch_field() function returns the next field (column) in the result-set, as an object.

Syntax

Object oriented style:

$mysqli_result -> fetch_field()

Procedural style:

mysqli_fetch_field(result)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
result	Required. Specifies a result set identifier returned by mysqli_query(), mysqli_store_result() or mysqli_use_result()

Technical Details

Return Value:	Returns an object containing field definition information. FALSE if no info is available. The object has the following properties: name - name of the column orgname - original column name (if an alias is specified) table - name of table orgtable - original table name (if an alias is specified) def - reserved for default values, currently always "" db - database (new in PHP 5.3.6) catalog - catalog name, always "def" (since PHP 5.3.6) max_length - maximum width of field length - width of field as specified in table definition charsetnr - character set number for the field flags - bit-flags for the field type - data type used for the field decimals - for integer fields; the number of decimals used
PHP Version:	5+

Return Value:

Returns an object containing field definition information. FALSE if no info is available. The object has the following properties:

name - name of the column
orgname - original column name (if an alias is specified)
table - name of table
orgtable - original table name (if an alias is specified)
def - reserved for default values, currently always ""
db - database (new in PHP 5.3.6)
catalog - catalog name, always "def" (since PHP 5.3.6)
max_length - maximum width of field
length - width of field as specified in table definition
charsetnr - character set number for the field
flags - bit-flags for the field
type - data type used for the field
decimals - for integer fields; the number of decimals used

PHP Version:

Example - Procedural style

Return the next field (column) in the result-set, then print each field's name, table, and max length:

<?php
$con = mysqli_connect("localhost","my_user","my_password","my_db");

if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
exit();
}

$sql = "SELECT Lastname, Age FROM Persons ORDER BY Lastname";

if ($result = mysqli_query($con, $sql)) {
// Get field information for all fields
while ($fieldinfo = mysqli_fetch_field($result)) {
    printf("Name: %s\n", $fieldinfo -> name);
    printf("Table: %s\n", $fieldinfo -> table);
    printf("max. Len: %d\n", $fieldinfo -> max_length);
  }
mysqli_free_result($result);
}

mysqli_close($con);
?>

❮ PHP MySQLi Reference