Subqueries. For CodeIgniter.

By Eric Siegel

Information

This is a subquery library for CodeIgniter’s (1.7.x - 2.0.2) active record class. It lets you use the active record methods to create subqueries in your SQL.

It supports SELECT, JOIN, FROM, WHERE, etc. It also supports UNION ALL!

_{(Yes, you can have subqueries inside subqueries inside UNIONs and UNIONs inside subqueries.)}

Instructions

Put Subquery.php into /application/libraries, then load it in your code using $this->load->library('subquery');. I guess you can add 'subquery' to $autoload['libraries'] (in /application/config/autoload.php), if you want.

CodeIgniter 2.1.x

This library doesn't work with CodeIgniter 2.1.x out of the box. It requires modifications to a file in /system to make it work.

You need to edit /system/database/DB_active_rec.php and modify the signature of _compile_select (should be line 1673). In the older version(s) of CodeIgniter, this function was not protected, so if you remove the protected keyword from the function, my library will work.

_{(There's probably a reason this function is protected.)}

In the develop version of CodeIgniter (which works with this library just fine, by the way), there is a public function that you can use. You can "steal" the get_compiled_select function from the /system/database/DB_query_builder.php file (line 1283).

/**
 * Get SELECT query string
 *
 * Compiles a SELECT query string and returns the sql.
 *
 * @param    string    the table name to select from (optional)
 * @param    bool    TRUE: resets QB values; FALSE: leave QB vaules alone
 * @return    string
 */
public function get_compiled_select($table = '', $reset = TRUE)
{
    if ($table !== '')
    {
        $this->_track_aliases($table);
        $this->from($table);
    }

    $select = $this->_compile_select();

    if ($reset === TRUE)
    {
        $this->_reset_select();
    }

    return $select;
}

Put this function inside /system/database/DB_active_rec.php.

My library will check for the existance of either a _compile_select or get_compiled_select method. If none of these methods exist, the library will fail to load.

Methods

• start_subquery: Creates a new database object to be used for the subquery
  • Parameters:
    • $statement: SQL statement to put subquery into ('select', 'from', 'join', 'where', 'where_in', etc.)
    • $join_type: JOIN type (only for join statements)
    • $join_on: JOIN ON clause (only for join statements)
  • Returns: CodeIgniter db object to call active record methods on
• end_subquery: Closes the database object and writes the subquery
  • Parameters:
    • $alias: Alias to use in query, or field to use for WHERE
    • $operator: Operator to use for WHERE ('=', '!=', '<', etc.) / WHERE IN (TRUE for WHERE IN, FALSE for WHERE NOT IN)
      • If it's a SELECT, this parameter will turn it into COALESCE((SELECT ...), $operator) AS $alias
    • $database: Database object to use when dbStack is empty (optional)
  • Returns: Nothing
• start_union: Creates a new database object to be used for unions
  • Parameters: None
  • Returns: CodeIgniter db object to call active record methods on
• end_union: Combines all opened db objects into a UNION ALL query
  • Parameters:
    • $database: Database object to use when dbStack is empty (optional)
  • Returns: Nothing

Examples

The most basic use of this library is to have a subquery in a SELECT statement. This is very simple. Let's say you want to get this query:

SELECT field1, (SELECT field2 FROM table2 WHERE table1.field3 = table2.field3) as field2X
FROM table1 WHERE field4 = 'test'

You would do this in your code:

$this->db->select('field1');
$sub = $this->subquery->start_subquery('select');
$sub->select('field2')->from('table2');
$sub->where('table1.field3 = table2.field3');
$this->subquery->end_subquery('field2X');
$this->db->from('table1')
$this->db->where('field4', 'test');

If it's possible that your subquery might return a NULL row, you can set a default value. That's done like this:

$this->db->select('field1');
$sub = $this->subquery->start_subquery('select');
$sub->select('field2')->from('table2');
$sub->where('table1.field3 = table2.field3');
// Note the second parameter here
$this->subquery->end_subquery('field2X', 'field5');
$this->db->from('table1')
$this->db->where('field4', 'test');

This will generate:

SELECT field1, COALESCE((SELECT field2 FROM table2 WHERE table1.field3 = table2.field3), field5) as field2X
FROM table1 WHERE field4 = 'test'

By passing different values to start_subquery, you can make this library do anyting!

Here's a WHERE IN example:

$this->db->select('field1, field2')->from('table1');
$sub = $this->subquery->start_subquery('where_in');
$sub->select('field3')->from('table2')->where('field2', 'test');
$this->subquery->end_subquery('field4', FALSE);

This will generate:

SELECT field1, field2 FROM table1
WHERE field4 NOT IN (SELECT field3 FROM table2 WHERE field2 = 'test')

UNION queries have a slightly different syntax. For subqueries, every start_subquery needs an end_subquery, but with UNION you only need one end_union - no matter how many start_unions you have.

$sub1 = $this->subquery->start_union();
$sub1->select('field1')->from('table1');
$sub2 = $this->subquery->start_union();
$sub2->select('field2')->from('table2');
$sub3 = $this->subquery->start_union();
$sub3->select('field3')->from('table3');
$this->subquery->end_union();
$this->db->order_by('field1', 'DESC');