PHP and PostgreSQL boolean data type

[Thom Brown]

Hi,

A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.

An obvious example of this would be for a table with users and their
boolean registered status:

Select user, registered From users;

Then getting a row from the result would reveal: array('user' =>
'thomb', registered => 'f');

Another problem is with arrays, where they are difficult to parse as
they also come through as plain strings with no binary alternative.

Is this a limitation of libpq or a flawed implementation in the php
library? And if this is just the case for backwards-compatibility, is
there a way to switch it to a more sensible PHP data type?

Thanks

Thom

[A. Kretschmer]

Post by Thom Brown
Hi,
A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.

http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/302-BOOLEAN-datatype-with-PHP-compatible-output.html

Regards, Andreas

[Thom Brown]

On 10 February 2010 12:11, A. Kretschmer

Post by A. Kretschmer

Post by Thom Brown
Hi,
A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.

http://andreas.scherbaum.la/blog/archives/302-BOOLEAN-datatype-with-PHP-compatible-output.html

Thanks guys. I can see that this is specifically a PHP issue then.
It seems like an extreme workaround though. I'd rather see the PHP
library updated in a way that would somehow not break existing code
which checked for an 'f'. Not quite sure what the solution would be.

Thanks

Thom

[Tommy Gildseth]

Post by Thom Brown
Is this a limitation of libpq or a flawed implementation in the php
library? And if this is just the case for backwards-compatibility, is
there a way to switch it to a more sensible PHP data type?

Using PDO(http://no.php.net/pdo) will at least give you native values
for true/false. Arrays, I don't know, since I don't use them.

[Chris]

Post by Thom Brown
Hi,
A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.
An obvious example of this would be for a table with users and their
Select user, registered From users;
Then getting a row from the result would reveal: array('user' =>
'thomb', registered => 'f');

That's how postgres stores them, php doesn't understand the field is a
boolean.

# create table a(a int, b boolean);
# insert into a(a, b) values (1, true);
# insert into a(a, b) values (2, false);
# SELECT * from a;
a | b
---+---
1 | t
2 | f
(2 rows)

Also while not in the "official" docs, it is a note from 2002:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pgsql.php#18749

and

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.pg-fetch-array.php says

Each value in the array is represented as a string. Database NULL
values are returned as NULL.

Post by Thom Brown
Another problem is with arrays, where they are difficult to parse as
they also come through as plain strings with no binary alternative.

Haven't played with postgres arrays so can't say either way - but same
as above, php just fetches the data.

There's an example that might help you -
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pgsql.php#89841

[Torsten Zühlsdorff]

Post by Thom Brown
A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.

This problem is solved since nearly 5 years with PDO. You can use an
abstraction like DDDBL (see my signature) if you want to save time while
using PDO.

Greetings from Germany,
Torsten
--
http://www.dddbl.de - ein Datenbank-Layer, der die Arbeit mit 8
verschiedenen Datenbanksystemen abstrahiert,
Queries von Applikationen trennt und automatisch die Query-Ergebnisse
auswerten kann.

[Torsten Zühlsdorff]

Post by Thom Brown
A long-standing problem we've had with PostgreSQL queries in PHP is
that the returned data for boolean columns is the string 'f' instead
of the native boolean value of false.

This problem is solved since nearly 5 years with PDO. You can use an
abstraction like DDDBL (see my signature) if you want to save time while
using PDO.

Greetings from Germany,
Torsten
--
http://www.dddbl.de - ein Datenbank-Layer, der die Arbeit mit 8
verschiedenen Datenbanksystemen abstrahiert,
Queries von Applikationen trennt und automatisch die Query-Ergebnisse
auswerten kann.