how to extend database class.. extra method required

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
Hi all,

I have a table with a parent/child field structure. When querying it is very useful to get an array back that is indexed by the key of each row in the table. This helps when iterating through the results so the parent/child structure can be ordered properly... a classic example of this is a site's navigation.

So far I can't find such a method that does this within the database class.

The closest is this:

Code:

$this->result_object()

Which within the DB_result.php file contains the following code:

Code:

function result_object()
    {
        if (count($this->result_object) > 0)
        {
            return $this->result_object;
        }
        
        // In the event that query caching is on the result_id variable
        // will return FALSE since there isn't a valid SQL resource so
        // we'll simply return an empty array.
        if ($this->result_id === FALSE OR $this->num_rows() == 0)
        {
            return array();
        }

        $this->_data_seek(0);
        while ($row = $this->_fetch_object())
        {
            $this->result_object[] = $row;
        }
        
        return $this->result_object;
    }

This returns a result set like this:

Code:

Array
(
    [1] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 234
            [parent_id] => 0
            [name] => Home
        )

    [2] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 567
            [parent_id] => 234
            [name] => About Us
        )

    [3] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 890
            [parent_id] => 234
            [name] => Contact us
        )
)

Note the key of the returned array is fairly useless, as in my situation I have to loop through the array to find any object of 'id'

Ideally I need a new method which would be like this:

Code:

function result_object_key($key='')
    {
        if (count($this->result_object) > 0)
        {
            return $this->result_object;
        }
        
        // In the event that query caching is on the result_id variable
        // will return FALSE since there isn't a valid SQL resource so
        // we'll simply return an empty array.
        if ($this->result_id === FALSE OR $this->num_rows() == 0)
        {
            return array();
        }

        $this->_data_seek(0);
        while ($row = $this->_fetch_object())
        {
            if ($key) {
                $this->result_object[$row->$key] = $row;
            } else {
                $this->result_object[] = $row;
            }            
            
        }
        
        return $this->result_object;
    }

When called like this:

Code:

$this->result_object_key('id')

Would return this:

Code:

Array
(
    [234] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 234
            [parent_id] => 0
            [name] => Home
        )

    [567] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 567
            [parent_id] => 234
            [name] => About Us
        )

    [890] => stdClass Object
        (
            [id] => 890
            [parent_id] => 234
            [name] => Contact us
        )
)

Which is a lot more fun to process..

So my question is this, what is the best/C.I. way to extend methods of the Database class?

[eluser]CI TaMeR[/eluser]
I wouldn't extend the db lib for this I would just create a model *Master_Madel.php and autoloaded at startup.

[eluser]coolfactor[/eluser]
There is no way to extend the DB class right now. The extending of libraries was added in a recent version, and the design of the DB classes didn't facilitate them being extended in the same way. There's a lot of discussion about this behind the scenes, but in the meantime, I would suggest taking TaMeR's advice and building the needed functionality into your model, even if you must iterate over the resultset more than once. to build the array you need.

[eluser]HdotNET[/eluser]
Point taken.... you can't extend the db class.

Whats the best place to post this method so it at some point makes it into a release?

wiki / 'Ignited Code' ?