Use EXPLAIN

[L4DD13]

Hi,

Is there a way of using and displaying the outcome of a query using EXPLAIN within PHP?

Thanks

[nickardo]

What the heck do you mean? please explain

[L4DD13]

All I know about EXPLAIN is to use it in the 'dos' interface.
How can I use it within a PHP script to show what I would see in the 'dos' interface on a web page?

[Dan Grossman]

Let's not call it the "dos" interface, DOS was an operating system. It's the mysql client, or a command line interface

You can do exactly what you do with SELECT queries, it'll work with EXPLAIN:

mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'pass');
mysql_select_db('db');

$res = mysql_query('EXPLAIN SELECT id FROM purchases');
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res))
    print_r($row); 

Array
(
    [id] => 1
    [select_type] => SIMPLE
    [table] => purchases
    [type] => index
    [possible_keys] =>
    [key] => PRIMARY
    [key_len] => 4
    [ref] =>
    [rows] => 953
    [Extra] => Using index
)