<- 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]] objects that represent the attributes of the columns of a specified table. $m = $db->metaColumns('my_table'); print_r($m); adoFieldObject Object ( [name] => actno [max_length] => 8 [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. $ar = $db->metaColumnNames('test'); print_r($ar); /* * Returns: COLUMN_1=>column_1, COLUMN_2=>column_2, COLUMN_3=>column_3 */