PHP MySQLi mysqli_fetch_fields() - All Columns at Once

mysqli_fetch_fields()

The mysqli_fetch_fields() function is the fastest way to get a complete overview of your query structure. With a single call, you get an array containing objects with information about every single column in the result set.

EXAMPLE

<?php
$server = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$database = "mysqli_database";

$connection = mysqli_connect($server, $username, $password, $database);
$query = "SELECT fruit, vegetable FROM mysqli_table";

if ($result = mysqli_query($connection, $query)) {
    // Retrieve data about all columns at once in the form of an array
    // NOTE: The mysqli_fetch_fields() function returns an array containing objects for absolutely 
    // all columns from the SELECT statement. Using a foreach loop, we can easily iterate through 
    // this array and output the data for each column.
    $all_fields = mysqli_fetch_fields($result);

    foreach ($all_fields as $field) {
        echo "Column: " . $field->name . "<br>";
        printf("Table: %s<br>", $field->table);
        printf("Type (ID): %s<br>", $field->type);
        printf("Field length: %s<br><br>", $field->length);
    }
    mysqli_free_result($result);
}

mysqli_close($connection);
?>

RESULT

The result will be displayed here...

Why is this better than the standard fetch_field function? With the standard function, you have to manually run a while loop, but here you get all the data in a single step. This is ideal when you want to, for example, automatically display a table header with column names at the top of a webpage. Test it at home like this:

It returns an array of objects; each object represents one column.

A foreach loop is used to quickly iterate through all column properties.

Excellent for generating dynamic HTML tables where columns change frequently.