String variables are common in any programming language. You are likely going to use or manipulate a string at some point while programming. Sometimes, string variables are not at all perfect. Many of them may even have characters that need to be removed. Targeting specific locations of a string, PHP provides 3 string functions we can use to remove unwanted characters from a string variable: trim(), ltrim() and rtrim(). Continue reading to see examples of each function…
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PHP empty() function use with MySQL NULL
PHP provides a handy function, empty(), that is used to determine whether a variable is empty. Perhaps that is a bit confusing to someone unfamiliar with the empty() function and I can see how. In this blog post, I will cover: what empty() means in PHP, what the empty() function does, and a use case pairing up empty() with the PHP ternary operator conditional construct. Both used in combination with the MySQL NULL value. Continue reading and see examples of empty()…
PHP MySQL BLOB PDF: Display in Browser
In Use MySQL BLOB column with PHP to store .pdf file, I covered an example of how to store a .pdf file in the actual database table using the MySQL BLOB datatype and PHP. Now that we have .pdf’s stored in the database, how do we display them in the browser? This blog post answers that exact question. Continue reading to see a working example using PHP…
Use MySQL BLOB column with PHP to store .pdf file
Like always I am sharing new things I learn here on my blog. I was recently working on a requirement for a LAMP stack web application reporting dashboard in which I needed to store – and eventually – retrieve a .pdf file. I have read in several places (this fantastic book is a great resource) that a viable option is storing images or documents (.pdf in this case) in the actual database table as opposed to on the server file system. MySQL has the BLOB datatype that can be used to store files such as .pdf, .jpg, .txt, and the like. In this blog post, I cover how I accomplished uploading and storing the actual .pdf file in a BLOB column in MySQL using PHP. Any corrections, tips, pointers, and recommendations for best practices are always welcome. We all learn as we go!!!
MySQL DROP statement using phpMyAdmin
The MySQL DROP statement is one of many powerful DDL commands. Be it ALTER TABLE some_table DROP some_column or DROP some_table, this type of command can drastically change your data landscape because in executing MySQL DROP, you are completely removing objects from the database! If you are using the phpMyAdmin web interface, you can execute the MySQL DROP statement with just a few mouse clicks. Continue reading to see how…