database - List of PHP native_type's for PDO getColumnMeta()

Question

I am using the PDO Database Abstraction library to make sure my code is portable. However, I now find that I need column information so I turned to the PDOStatement->getColumnMeta() method hoping it would be somewhat standardized - but from what I have found it actually seems open-ended.

For example, when calling that method from SQLite it seems you get one set of possible values:

http://gcov.php.net/PHP_5_3/lcov_html/pdo_sqlite/sqlite_statement.c.gcov.php

null
double
blob
string
integer
...

While a call from the MySQL database lists all kinds of other weird values: http://gcov.php.net/PHP_5_3/lcov_html/pdo_mysql/mysql_statement.c.gcov.php

var_string
longlong
newdecimal
geometry
...

I may be looking in the wrong place also, but I just can't find any useful data on what "native_type" values can be when it comes to switching around databases.

Answer 1

PDO is not a database abstraction. It is "only" an unified access layer. If you switch to another database system you most likely have to change the code. Each (specific) database driver returns its own set of values and there's no "translation layer" for the driver:decl_type info in pdo beyond the native_type/pdo_type fields in the result of getColumnMeta()