NYCPHP Meetup

[Kristina D. H. Anderson]

Bev,

phpMyAdmin often puts those funny sideways leaning apostrophes/quotes --
 ` -- around table names and field names when it writes its queries.  
You want to remove those before you create or change any table or field 
names, I think is what he means in practical terms.  That way you will 
get errors on reserved words.

Also you can try to avoid your own confusion by giving longer, more 
detailed names to fields.  Some people hate this idea but to me a 
little extra typing is worth the clarity.

Kristina

> Hi Dan,
> 
> Daniel Convissor wrote:
> > Your big mistake was delimiting the identifiers when creating the 
table.
> > 
> > "Identifiers" are table names, field names, index names, etc.  The 
> > "delimiter" for these is "`" in MySQL.  When you use the delimiter 
around 
> > the identifiers, the database allows you to create nearly any name 
you 
> > can possibly think of, including "reserved words."  Reserved words 
are, 
> > well words that the system has reserved for its own internal use, 
so 
> > should not be utilized by users.  As you've now discovered, 
delimiting 
> > identifiers when creating tables is the genesis of a world of pain.
> 
> This is really important stuff and I don't remember it being covered 
in
> any of my "beginner" books. Grrr.
> 
> > If you tried to create a table with a name called "desc" in it 
without 
> > delimiting it, MySQL would have complained to you up front, saving 
you 
> > the agony.
> 
> The thing is, I have no idea how I managed to delimit the 
identifiers. I
> created my everything using phpMyAdmin--could that have been the
> culprit? The reason I ask is because I just tried it again and MySQL
> didn't complain. Since you said it should be complaining, I decided to
> attempt the same using a trial version of Navicat that I downloaded a
> few days ago. Sure enough, MySQL threw a syntax error right away. WTF?
> 
> If you tell me that I should be talking to MySQL from the command line
> I'm going to jump out the window forthwith. ;)
> 
> >> Or like the time (very recently) when I was converting timestamps 
to
> >> calculate the number of days between two given dates. I used the
> >> number_format() function...
> > 
> > Uh, just making sure...  Did you convert the timestamps via 
> > number_format() then do the math?  Ouch.  This is the kind of stuff 
the 
> > date functions, like date_diff(), etc, in MySQL and PHP are for.  
> > Faster, more accurate, easier.  Then format the result.
> 
> Actually, my description wasn't very accurate. I guess I sort of did 
it
> in the middle--after the math to calculate the number of days between
> "today" and the expiration date, but before telling PHP to check for a
> specific number days See below). Where you now see round() is where I
> was previously using number_format():
> 
> $todays_date = date("Y-m-d");
> $today = strtotime($todays_date);
> $exp_date = strtotime($exp_date);
> $diff = ($exp_date - $today);
> $num_days = ($diff / 86400);
> $num_days = round($num_days, 0);
> $exp_date = date('m-d-y', $exp_date);
> if ($num_days <= 60 && $num_days >= 46) {
> 	$exp_date = '<span class="exp60Days">'.$exp_date.'</span>
> } //...and so on
> 
> In MySQL the exp_date field data type is DATE. I strongly suspect that
> I'm handling my dates in the most verbose & confusing way possible, 
and
> I know for a fact that I didn't properly normalize my tables. IOW, I
> managed to make things work, but it's a big mess.
> 
> I'm currently trying to redo everything, but with limited success as
> trying to grope my way through the fog of my inexperience results in
> frequent rounds of tripping & falling face-first into the mud. I
> eventually figure stuff out and inch my way up a little, but it's a
> slow, painful climb.
> 
> Sometimes I sort of feel like Sisyphus. *sigh*
> 
> I'm going to go check out the date_diff() function...
> 
> Bev
> 
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