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--- v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:metacolumns [2016/03/16 02:35] – created mnewnham
+++ v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:metacolumns [2016/03/20 15:05] (current) – [MetaColumns] mnewnham
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<- v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:metatypes|MetaTypes ^ v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:start_lesson|Start Of Lesson ^ v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:metatables|MetaTables ->
+<- v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:metatypes|MetaTypes ^ v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:start_lesson|Start Of Lesson ^ v5:userguide:learn_dictionary:other_metafunctions|Other MetaFunctions ->
 ~~NOTOC~~
 ====== MetaColumns ======
-The metaColumns method returns an array of [[v5:dictionary:adoFieldObject|adoFieldObject]] object that represents the attributes of the columns of a specified table. Each column is represented by
+The metaColumns method returns an array of [[v5:dictionary:adoFieldObject|adoFieldObject]] objects that represent the attributes of the columns of a specified table.
+<code php>
+$m = $db->metaColumns('my_table');
+print_r($m);
+</code>
   adoFieldObject Object
   (
     [name] => actno
-    [max_length] => 2
+    [max_length] => 8
-    [type] => I
+    [type] => INT
   )
+  adoFieldObject Object
+  (
+    [name] => actname
+    [max_length] => 30
+    [type] => VARCHAR
+  )
+Note that the type of the data returned is the [[v5:dictionary:actualtype|actualType]]. In order to retrieve the **//metaType//** , the value must be passed to:
+  $db->metaType($object->type);
+For example, in the example above, the 'actname' field is of a type **//VARCHAR//** . If we pass this to ''metaType()'', it returns the value **C**
+===== Extended Attributes =====
+Some drivers return an extended set of attributes that represent DBMS specific functionality. For example, the IBM DB2 driver returns the normal 3 attributes above plus the following 3:
+  [not_null] =>
+  [scale] =>
+  [primary_key] =>
+If you are writing portable applications you should not rely on these attributes to be available across all databases.
+===== metaColumnNames =====
+This method [[v5:dictionary:metacolumnnames|metaColumnNames()]] returns just the column names from the table.
+<code php>
+$ar = $db->metaColumnNames('test');
+print_r($ar);
+/*
+ * Returns:
+COLUMN_1=>column_1,
+COLUMN_2=>column_2,
+COLUMN_3=>column_3
+*/
+</code>