Native SQL

Introduction

Doctrine_RawSql provides a convenient interface for building raw sql queries. Similar to Doctrine_RawSql provides means for fetching arrays and objects. Whichever way you prefer.

Using raw sql for fetching might be useful when you want to utilize database specific features such as query hints or the CONNECT keyword in Oracle.

Creating a Doctrine_RawSql object is easy:

// test.php
$q = new Doctrine_RawSql();

Optionally a connection parameter can be given and it accepts an instance of Doctrine_Connection. You learned how to create connections in the Connections chapter.

// test.php
$conn = Doctrine_Manager::connection();
$q    = new Doctrine_RawSql($conn);

Component Queries

The first thing to notice when using Doctrine_RawSql is that you always have to place the fields you are selecting in curly brackets {}. Also for every selected component you have to call addComponent().

The following example should clarify the usage of these:

// test.php
$q->select('{u.*}') ->from('user u') ->addComponent('u', 'User');
$users = q->execute();

print_r($users->toArray());

Pay attention to following things:

• Fields must be in curly brackets.
• For every selected table there must be one addComponent() call.

Fetching from Multiple Components

When fetching from multiple components the addComponent() calls become a bit more complicated as not only do we have to tell which tables are bound to which components, we also have to tell the parser which components belongs to which.

In the following example we fetch all users and their phonenumbers. First create a new Doctrine_RawSql object and add the select parts:

// test.php
$q = new Doctrine_RawSql();
$q->select('{u.*}, {p.*}');

Now we need to add the FROM part to the query with the join to the phonenumber table from the user table and map everything together:

// test.php
$q->from('user u LEFT JOIN phonenumber p ON u.id = p.user_id')

Now we tell that user table is bound to class called User we also add an alias for User class called u. This alias will be used when referencing the User class.

// test.php
$q->addComponent('u', 'User u');

Now we add another component that is bound to table phonenumber:

// test.php
$q->addComponent('p', 'u.Phonenumbers p');

Now we can execute the Doctrine_RawSql query just like if you were executing a Doctrine_Query object:

// test.php
$users = $q->execute();
echo get_class($users) . "";
echo get_class($users[0]) . "\n";
echo get_class($users[0]['Phonenumbers'][0]) . "";

The above example would output the following when executed:

$ php test.php Doctrine_Collection User Phonenumber

Conclusion

This chapter may or may not be useful for you right now. In most cases the Doctrine Query Language is plenty sufficient for retrieving the complex data sets you require. But if you require something outside the scope of what Doctrine_Query is capable of then Doctrine_RawSql can help you.

In the previous chapters you've seen a lot of mention about YAML schema files and have been given examples of schema files but haven't really been trained on how to write your own. The next chapter explains in great detail how to maintain your models as YAML Schema Files.