PHP - getting field name from column index using PDO

I guess you could use array_flip($array) to swap the keys/values of your array, then you could get the "NAME" field easily

Also, you can retrieve the data using fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC), that way you only will get the associative names of the query

When I read this question I felt like I was the one posting it because it's exactly what I was looking for since I wanted to create an html table dynamically from a query using pdo and I didn't want use show tables or query the schema and I wanted to use the fields in my query

the answer that hector gave is exactly the key, I just thought I would share/post a working sample in which I'm parsing an array to get my table headers and I'm creating and html table with the items queried from the db:

$sqlselect = "SELECT name, last, othercol FROM persontable";

// I prepare and execute my query
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sqlselect);
$stmt->execute();

//get full recordset: header and records
$fullrs = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC); 

//get the first row (column headers) but do not go to next record
$colheaders = current($fullrs)

out = ""; //variable that will hold my table

out .= <table>;

//get my columns headers in the table          
foreach($colheaders as $key=>$val) 
{
    $out .= '<th>'.$key.'</th>';
}

//get my records in the table
foreach($fullrs as $row) 
{
    $out .= "<tr>"; 
        $out .= '<td>'.$row['name'].'</td>';
        $out .= '<td>'.$row['last'].'</td>';
        $out .= '<td>'.$row['othercol'].'</td>';
    $out .= "<tr>";
}

out .= </table>;  

//spit my table out
echo $out;

Hope this helps someone

This worked for me, although creating an object is not required.

<?php
namespace yourNameSpace;

// Extend PDO class for safe error handling
Class SafePDO extends \PDO {

    public static function exception_handler($exception) {
        // Output the exception details
        die("Uncaught exception: " . $exception->getMessage());
    }

    public function __construct($dsn, $username='', $password='', $driver_options=array()) {

        // Temporarily change the PHP exception handler while we . . .
        set_exception_handler(array(__CLASS__, 'exception_handler'));

        // . . . create a PDO object
        parent::__construct($dsn, $username, $password, $driver_options);

        // Change the exception handler back to whatever it was before
        restore_exception_handler();
    }

}

class TableRows extends \RecursiveIteratorIterator { 
    function __construct($it) { 
        parent::__construct($it, self::LEAVES_ONLY); 
    }

    function current() {
        return "<td>" . parent::current(). "</td>";
    }

    function beginChildren() { 
        echo "<tr>"; 
    } 

    function endChildren() { 
        echo "</tr>" . "\n";
    } 
} 


trait traitSQLExecution {

    private function generateTable(
        $sql,
        $servername = "default_value",
        $username = "default_value",
        $password = "default_value",
        $dbname = "default_value"
    ) {

        // Connect to the database with defined constants
        $pdo = new SafePDO("mysql: host=$servername;dbname=$dbname", $username, $password);

        $pdo->setAttribute(\PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

        try {               
            $stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql);
            $stmt->execute();

            // set the resulting array to associative
            $result = $stmt->setFetchMode(\PDO::FETCH_ASSOC); 

            $recordSet = $stmt->fetchAll();

            echo '<table id="myReport"><tr>';

            // Get table headers dynamically
            foreach($recordSet[0] as $k=>$v) {
                echo "<th>$k</th>";
            }

            echo '</tr>';

            foreach(new TableRows(new \RecursiveArrayIterator($recordSet)) as $k=>$v) { 
                echo $v;
            }
        }
        catch(PDOException $e) {
            echo 'Error: ' . $e->getMessage();
        }
        $pdo = null;
        $stmt = null;
        echo '</table>';
    }
}

class obj_report {
    // use section is used to include reusable pieces of code
    use traitSQLExecution;


    // Construct is called upon instantiation of an object
    function __construct($table){
        /****************************************************************************************
        * Do not include public variables as this is bad design.
        * Only public methods should be available to change the object in a predictable fashion.
        ****************************************************************************************/

        if ( $table !== "" ) {
            $this->generateTable($table);
        }
    }
}

$obj = new obj_report((string)htmlspecialchars($_POST['table']) ?: "");
$obj = NULL;

?>