Summary Function to encapsulate a mySQL query and optionally return the result as xml.

Function to encapsulate a mySQL query and optionally return the result as xml.

This function consists of several parts:

• Connect to the server
• Select the appropriate database
• Execute the query
• Loop through the results and build appropriate xml
• Return the xml as a string

This function produces xml in the following format

<table_name>
   <row>
      <fieldname>value</fieldname>
   </row>
</table_name>


Usage: $result = safequery(SQL Query, Database name, true/false);

based on code written by Jay Greenspan in his book MySQL/PHP Database Applications New York: M&T Books, 2001.

Additional information

function safequery($query, $db, $asXML=false) { // Connect to the mySQL Server mysql_connect("server","username","password"); // Choose the appropriate database mysql_select_db($db); // Execute the query $result = mysql_query($query); // If the Output is XML process it appropriately if ($asXML) { $tablename = mysql_field_table($result, 0); $xml = "<".$tablename.">"; while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) { $xml .= "<row>"; while (list($fieldname,$value)=each($row)) { $xml .= "<".$fieldname.">".$value."</".$fieldname.">"; } $xml .= "</row>"; } $xml.="</".$tablename.">"; return $xml; } // Otherwise return the result else { return $result; } }