What's the story with $result ?

[JustKIDn]

Hi all,

Just quickly, why does everyone use $result ?

As Seinfeld would say 'Not that there's anything wrong with that!'

I've just been noticing that almost every example that requests data from a DB uses $result.

I've checked, it's not a reserved word or variable. So apparently it's not required to only use $result.

So just a quick poll:
[ul][li] 1. Are we just unimaginative? (is that a word?)[/li]
[li] 2. It's easy to read/understand?[/li]
[li] 3. Or did the grandfathers of PHP start a fad that hasn't gone out of style yet?[/li]
[/ul]
I was just wondering, because it doesn't seem to be as common (consistantly) in other languages.



tgus

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Families can be together forever...

 

[Westbury]

I dont know about anyone else but I have 2 main reasons.
1. I was taught to use varibale names that describe what information that varibale holds. $result seems to be a good name for holding the DB query results.
2. I learnt php by using the php manual. They use $result in their examples and I have never thought of a better name for it (I guess I am unimaginative )

 

[jamesp0tter]

uhm.. lol, i never noticed that, but now that i think about it, i use $result a lot.. don't know why, maybe because i always used it and most examples of code and snippets use it... as Westbury said, what better name to give a variable that holds the result of a query ?

jamesp0tter,
jamespotter@netcabo.pt

p.s.: sorry for my (sometimes) bad english

 

[JustKIDn]

I think it's great that there is such consistancy with so many programmers in one particular language.

The reason for my question, is that I was going to write a script that had multiple queries. And I started looking at other examples to see what other variable names were used by others. That's when I noticed that $result is almost always used.
That made me start looking to see if it's a reserved word, with special purpose or something. (it's not!)

Although $result is very discriptive and makes sense to use it. It seems to be common practice to use something like $sql or $str_sql (also discriptive) in other languages that use sql select statments.

I'm not trying to change anything! I was really trying to verify to myself that it's alright to use other names also.



Thanks!

tgus

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[flugh]

I prefer to call my results $applesack, and sql queries $toefungus... ;-)

I'm the same way:

$result=mysql_query($sql);
while ($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
...
}

$result, $row, and $sql seem to hard-coded into my brain. Oh, and yes, I also put in the if mysql_num_rows($result) check too, but it didn't really fit mood ;-)

----
JBR

 

[ingernet]

The only time I ever use $result is when I'm sending a friend a snippet of code to explain what I'm talking about. $result is the new $x.

Otherwise, I usually use some variation on $result, for the same reason as you, tgus - that I have multiple results. I like to keep "result" in the name, though, just to keep it distinguished from all of the other kinds of variables I'm working with.

E.G.:
<code>

//find all open entries from foo
$selectOpenFooSQL = &quot;select foo_id from foo where open = 1&quot;;

//the result of that
$selectOpenFooResult = mysql_query($selectOpenFooSQL) or die(mysql_error());
</code>

It's verbose, but crystal clear for those times when you need to go back six months later and figure out what the heck you were thinking.

 

[jstreich]

It's a meaningful name, being the result of a query... I often use different variables as well, so long as they describe what the variable is... If I'm selecing the all the users, I am apt to use

$users

, but if it's more complicated like all users with 10 or more posts who haven't been on for five days or more and eat grapes, then

$results

is a lot better than

$userswithtenpostsnotonfivedayseatgrapes

, unless your insaine.

 

[davidshields]

Not only that (all of above) but if I have a query to get a bunch of stuff, then iterate thru it in a for loop or whatever, and need a subquery inside the loop (say extract something from person table that wouldn't have nicely fit with a join in outer query, I'll use $resultp, $rowsp for 'result-person' and rows-person in this result.
It CAN be a bugger if you get your editor (textpad) to macro in queries though - as they'll naturally be set up to use $result, and if you don't amend them (hah, as if *I* would make such a silly mistake) it breaks.

David

 

[flugh]

Since php has an extension for everything else, I propose a 'variable_name_generate()' and 'variable_name_interpret()'. The free software hackers can handle the bulk of the code. Then Microsoft can extend an olive branch to the community by writing the 'do the thinking for me' stuff ;-)

----
JBR

 

[jstreich]

They do have a variable_name_generate() ... It's called dropping the reference book on the keyboard, and see what keys it presses.

 

[JustKIDn]

So I'm not crazy or losing my mind. Other people actually use something other than just $result!

I kind of like the $userswithtenpostsnotonfivedayseatgrapes (just kidding!)

Maybe you could shorten it to $uwtpnofdeg
(or not)

tgus

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