What is the recommended approach to retrieve MySQL column types in PHP?

When working with MySQL databases in PHP, it is important to retrieve column types to properly handle and validate data. One recommended approach to retrieve MySQL column types in PHP is to use the mysqli_fetch_fields() function to get information about the columns in a result set. This function returns an array of objects, each representing a column, with properties like name, type, length, and flags. 

// Connect to MySQL database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Execute query
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table");

// Get column information
$columns = $result->fetch_fields();

// Loop through columns and display type
foreach ($columns as $column) {
    echo "Column Name: " . $column->name . ", Type: " . $column->type . "<br>";
}

// Free result set
$result->free();

// Close connection
$mysqli->close();

Keywords

PHP MySQL column types metadata information_schema

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