The mysqli quickstart series is coming to an end. Today, the post is about non-prepared statements. You may also want to check out the following related blog posts:

• Using MySQL prepared statements with PHP mysqli
• Using MySQL multiple statements with PHP mysqli
• Using MySQL stored procedures with PHP mysqli

Using mysqli to execute statements

Statements can be executed by help of the mysqli_query(), mysqli_real_query() and mysqli_multi_query() function. The mysqli_query() …

Opening a database connection is a boring tasks. But do you know how defaults are determined, if values are omitted? Or, did you know there are two flavours of persistent connections in mysqli? Of course you, as a german reader, know it. I blogged about it in 2009 over at phphatesme.com (Nimmer Ärger mit den Persistenten Verbindungen von MySQL? ) …

Database connections with mysqli

The MySQL server supports the use of different transport layers for connections. Connections use TCP/IP, Unix domain sockets or Windows named pipes.

The hostname localhost has a special meaning. It is bound to the use of Unix domain sockets. It is not possible to open a TCP/IP connection using the hostname localhost you must use 127.0.0.1 instead.

$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "", "test");
echo …

The series Using X with PHP mysqli continues. After notes on calling stored procedures and using prepared statements, its time for a multiple statement quickstart. A mighty tool, if used with care…

Using Multiple Statements with mysqli

MySQL optionally allows having multiple statements in one statement string. Sending multiple statements at once reduces client-server round trips but requires special handling.

Multiple statements or multi queries must be executed with mysqli_multi_query(). The individual statements of the statement string are seperated by semicolon. Then, all result sets returned by the executed statements must be fetched.

The MySQL server allows having statements that …

PECL/mysqlnd 1.1.2-stable has been released. The mysqlnd replication and load balancing plugin for PHP 5.3/5.4 finally got the download label it deserves: stable, ready for production use! PECL/mysqlnd_ms makes using any kind of MySQL database cluster easier.

• Download PECL/mysqlnd from pecl.php.net
• Documentation at the PHP Reference Manual

Key features

The release motto of the 1.1 series is “cover MySQL Replication basics with production quality”, which shows that the plugin is optimized for supporting MySQL replication cluster. But with its feature set it is not limited to. MySQL Cluster users will also profit from it.

• Automatic read/write …

Starting with PHP mysqli is easy, if one has some SQL and PHP skills. To get started one needs to know about the specifics of MySQL and a few code snippets. Using MySQL stored procedures with PHP mysqli has found enough readers to begin with a “quickstart” or “how-to” series. Take this post with a grain of salt. I have nothing against Prepared Statements as such, but I dislike unreflected blind use.

Using prepared statements with mysqli

The MySQL database supports prepared statements. A prepared statement or a parameterized statement is used to execute the same statement repeatedly with high efficiency.

Basic workflow

The prepared statement execution consists of two stages: prepare and execute. At the prepare stage a statement template is send to the database server. The server performs a syntax …

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked me how to use MySQL stored procedures with PHP’s mysqli API. Out of curiosity I asked another friend, a team lead, how things where going with their PHP MySQL project, for which they had planned to have most of their business logic in stored procedures. I got an email in reply stating something along the lines: "Our developers found that mysqli does not support stored procedures correctly. We use PDO.". Well, the existing documentation from PHP 5.0 times is not stellar, I confess. But still, that’s a bit too much… it ain’t that difficult. And, it works.

Using stored procedures with mysqli

The MySQL database supports stored procedures. A stored procedure is a subroutine stored in the database catalog. Applications can call and execute the stored procedure. The CALL SQL statement is used to execute a stored procedure.

Parameter

Stored procedures can …

The free Mysqlnd replication and load balancing plugin now offers load balancing and lazy connections independent of read write splitting. This makes the plugin attractive for MySQL Cluster users. All nodes participating in a MySQL Cluster can serve all requests, they all accept read and write requests. No statement redirection needs to be done. An application using MySQL Cluster has only one task: load balance requests over MySQL frontends (SQL Nodes).

Would you like to see the EXPLAIN output for all MySQL queries of any PHP application without changing the application much? Easy-peasy: compile PHP to use the mysqlnd library, install PECL/mysqlnd_uh and paste 22 lines of evil code into your auto_prepend_file .

class conn_proxy extends MysqlndUhConnection {
 public function query($conn, $query, $self = false) {
  if (!$self) {
   $this->query($conn, "EXPLAIN " . $query, true);
   if ($this->getFieldCount($conn)) {
    printf("\tAuto EXPLAIN for '%s'\n", $query);
    $res = $this->storeResult($conn);
    $r = new MysqlndUhresult();
    do {
      $row = NULL;
      $r->fetchInto($res, $row, 2, 1);
      if (is_array($row))
        printf("\t\t%s\n", …

Unfortunately MySQL Proxy was no good source of inspiration today. MySQL Proxy can do many wonderful things which you can do with C based mysqlnd plugins as well. But not with PECL/mysqlnd_uh. PECL/mysqlnd_uh lets you write “plugins” in PHP. Given my desire to demo the power of mysqlnd plugins at the upcoming webinar Succeed with Plugins using PHP examples, I had to extend PECL/mysqlnd_uh to allow result set manipulation. Five brand new lines of magic.

class __mysqlnd_result extends MysqlndUhResult {
 public function fetchInto($res, &$rows, $flags, $extension) {
  $rows = array("Your mysqlnd has been hacked!");
 }
}
mysqlnd_uh_set_result_proxy(new __mysqlnd_result());

…

It is the third day I try to find mysqlnd plugin use cases for the Succeed with Plugins webinar on October, 26th. Not being innovative or creative today, I looked into a classic: client fail over. As a trained and talented reader, you won’t be shocked to see 54 lines of PECL/mysqlnd_uh hacking today.

class __mysqlnd_conn_failover extends MysqlndUhConnection {
        
 private $fail_over_errno = array(
  2002 => "Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '%s' (%d)",
  2003 => "Can't connect to MySQL server on '%s' (%d)",
  2004 => "Unknown MySQL server host '%s' (%d)",
  2006 => "MySQL server has gone away",
  2013 => "Lost connection to MySQL server during query"
 );
 private $fail_over_servers = array(
  array("host" => …