LXXVIII. Microsoft SQL Server Functions

Introduction

These functions allow you to access MS SQL Server database.

Requirements

Requirements for Win32 platforms.

The extension requires the MS SQL Client Tools to be installed on the system where PHP is installed. The Client Tools can be installed from the MS SQL Server CD or by copying ntwdblib.dll from \winnt\system32 on the server to \winnt\system32 on the PHP box. Copying ntwdblib.dll will only provide access. Configuration of the client will require installation of all the tools.

Requirements for Unix/Linux platforms.

To use the MSSQL extension on Unix/Linux, you first need to build and install the FreeTDS library. Source code and installation instructions are available at the FreeTDS home page: http://www.freetds.org/

Note: In Windows, the DBLIB from Microsoft is used. Functions that return a column name are based on the dbcolname() function in DBLIB. DBLIB was developed for SQL Server 6.x where the max identifier length is 30. For this reason, the maximum column length is 30 characters. On platforms where FreeTDS is used (Linux), this is not a problem.

Installation

The MSSQL extension is enabled by adding extension=php_mssql.dll to php.ini.

To get these functions to work, you have to compile PHP with --with-mssql[=DIR], where DIR is the FreeTDS install prefix. And FreeTDS should be compiled using --enable-msdblib.

Runtime Configuration

The behaviour of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Table 1. MS SQL Server configuration options

Name	Default	Changeable	Changelog
mssql.allow_persistent	"1"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM
mssql.max_persistent	"-1"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM
mssql.max_links	"-1"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM
mssql.min_error_severity	"10"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.min_message_severity	"10"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.compatability_mode	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.connect_timeout	"5"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.timeout	"60"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.1.0.
mssql.textsize	"-1"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.textlimit	"-1"	PHP_INI_ALL
mssql.batchsize	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.0.4.
mssql.datetimeconvert	"1"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.2.0.
mssql.secure_connection	"0"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM	Available since PHP 4.3.0.
mssql.max_procs	"25"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.3.0.

For further details and definitions of the PHP_INI_* constants, see the Appendix H.

Resource Types

Predefined Constants

The constants below are defined by this extension, and will only be available when the extension has either been compiled into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime.

MSSQL_ASSOC (integer)
MSSQL_NUM (integer)
MSSQL_BOTH (integer)
SQLTEXT (integer)
SQLVARCHAR (integer)
SQLCHAR (integer)
SQLINT1 (integer)
SQLINT2 (integer)
SQLINT4 (integer)
SQLBIT (integer)
SQLFLT8 (integer)

Table of Contents
mssql_bind -- Adds a parameter to a stored procedure or a remote stored procedure
mssql_close -- Close MS SQL Server connection
mssql_connect -- Open MS SQL server connection
mssql_data_seek -- Moves internal row pointer
mssql_execute -- Executes a stored procedure on a MS SQL server database
mssql_fetch_array -- Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array, or both
mssql_fetch_assoc -- Returns an associative array of the current row in the result set specified by result_id
mssql_fetch_batch -- Returns the next batch of records
mssql_fetch_field -- Get field information
mssql_fetch_object -- Fetch row as object
mssql_fetch_row -- Get row as enumerated array
mssql_field_length -- Get the length of a field
mssql_field_name -- Get the name of a field
mssql_field_seek -- Seeks to the specified field offset
mssql_field_type -- Gets the type of a field
mssql_free_result -- Free result memory
mssql_free_statement -- Free statement memory
mssql_get_last_message -- Returns the last message from the server
mssql_guid_string -- Converts a 16 byte binary GUID to a string
mssql_init -- Initializes a stored procedure or a remote stored procedure
mssql_min_error_severity -- Sets the lower error severity
mssql_min_message_severity -- Sets the lower message severity
mssql_next_result -- Move the internal result pointer to the next result
mssql_num_fields -- Gets the number of fields in result
mssql_num_rows -- Gets the number of rows in result
mssql_pconnect -- Open persistent MS SQL connection
mssql_query -- Send MS SQL query
mssql_result -- Get result data
mssql_rows_affected -- Returns the number of records affected by the query
mssql_select_db -- Select MS SQL database

User Contributed Notes
Microsoft SQL Server Functions

cmeerbeek[at]ymor[.]nl
13-May-2005 04:32


We had some, read A LOT, of problems with MSSQL under Windows 2003. 

We had 2 the same windows, php, php-ini, everything machines but only one could connect. Unable to connect was the error message.



Finnaly we checked the version of ntwdblib.dll and the one distributed with PHP was 7.00.... and the version of the one on the SQL Server install was 8.00.... so we copied this one in the php and apache dir and it worked.

diegobandeira at ibest dot com dot br
08-Apr-2005 11:42


Hello!



This code appears work fine and fast to me, like mysql or msaccess.

The server is working for an Intranet home page.



<?php

  $db = new COM("ADODB.Connection");

  $dsn = "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=sa;Initial Catalog=tsos;Data Source=(local);Application Name=SellCar";

  $db->Open($dsn);

  $rs = $db->Execute("SELECT * FROM states order by name asc");



  while (!$rs->EOF)

  { 

     echo $rs->Fields['name']->Value."<BR>";

     $rs->MoveNext();

  }

?>



Diego Bandeira.

boonkit at gmail dot com
29-Mar-2005 04:29


If you are having problems with freeTDS when trying to get access to unicode data from mssql, set 'tds version =7.0' at etc/freetds.conf

tony
23-Mar-2005 10:51


With PHP 5 on a Windows 2000/IIS platform:



I have integrated authentication enabled in IIS.  I kept getting CGI timeouts on PHP pages for everyone but local administrators of the box.  The event log showed that PHP could not load php_mssql.dll, php_oci8.dll, and php_oracle.dll - 'Access Denied.'  



These extensions were executable by everyone, but the DLLs they depend on were not.  Had to add exec permissions for everyone to c:\winnt\system32\ntwdblib.dll as well as the oracle bin directory.

marcel at fluidleb dot com
31-Jan-2005 01:24


I've spent the last three days wild guessing why I could not connect to MS SQLServer 2000 and so I hope this might help someone else. Microsoft has purposefully closed the 1433 tcp port and others (maybe only to external ips) of the server. You can easily check if this is the case by looking at the Event Monitor. You should see an error produced by MSSQL SERVER/MSDE that basically says what I said. It suggests downloading and installing a security patch to open up the ports (but doesn't even say which update - remember this is Microsoft). 



Do download Service Pack 3a (SP3a). It does indeed fix the problem.

Salman Majid
25-Jan-2005 12:36


Sorry, previous message was incomplete. I used odbc functions to connect to Ms-SQL server. I was on a work station and server was not accessible for unknow reasons. mssql functions did not work there so I had to use odbc.

Salman Majid
25-Jan-2005 12:15


I was having problem in connecting Ms-SQL server with mssql_connect(srvr,uid,pwd). I simply created a DSN to my Database and replaced it with "server_name". i.e. 



mssql_connect(dsn,uid,pwd);



it worked well

craig at _NO_SPAM_deconstructor dot net
13-Jan-2005 03:22


Just a quick note pertaining marcos1979ar (10/06/04) definitive installation of FreeTDS above.



When you run the following to test the installation:

===============================================================

/usr/local/freetds/bin/tsql -S <ip of the server> -U <User SQL>

===============================================================



And it results in the following error:

=================================================================

locale is "C"

locale charset is "ANSI_X3.4-1968"

Password:

src/tds/login.c: tds_connect: xx.xx.x.xx:1443: Connection refused

Msg 20009, Level 9, State 0, Server OpenClient, Line 0

Server is unavailable or does not exist.

There was a problem connecting to the server

=================================================================



All I found that needed to be changed was for the configure --prefix from:



=======================================

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/freetds 

=======================================

         to

=======================================

./configure --prefix=/usr/local 

=======================================



Small but worth noting.

hbinduni at hslprpol dot com
20-Dec-2004 03:15


i found http://odbtp.sourceforge.net working fast, easy to use and to configure, and yes, it's multiplatform.

marc at NOSPAM dot durdin dot net
18-Nov-2004 11:19


Buried away in the mssql_field_length documentation is an important limitation that it is certainly worth knowing about *BEFORE* you do any database design:



Note to Win32 Users: Due to a limitation in the underlying API used by PHP (MS DbLib C API), the length of VARCHAR fields is limited to 255. If you need to store more data, use a TEXT field instead. 



SQL Server natively supports VARCHAR up to 8000 characters.  Note that TEXT fields have substantially poorer performance (and are much more limited) than VARCHAR so you may want to design your databases accordingly...



You can also work around this limitation with the following:



   -- for example, with MyVarCharField VARCHAR(1000)

   SELECT CAST(MyVarCharField AS TEXT) FROM MyTable

ASWL
28-Oct-2004 08:55


This note is for mssql under a Windows environment.



If you are having problems connecting to MS SQL using the mssql PHP extension then I would suggest that you get a copy of the latest NTWDBLIB.DLL. Copy it to the directory where PHP expects to find it's dll files.



I had an issuse whereby I was unable to connect to a MS SQL Cluster and this resolved my problem.

Dimitri Tarassenko (mitka at mitka.us)
24-Oct-2004 03:37


To enable MS SQL functions in PHP on Fedora Core or RHEL3 without recompiling PHP and replacing the distribution PHP packages, download and install php-mssql and freetds RPMS from 



http://phprpms.sf.net/mssql

effeese at gmail dot com
15-Oct-2004 09:28


in relation to the "unicode problem" mentioned by andrej at dairyweb dot com dot au I suggest use andrew at power-grid dot com's solution:



if you get a "Unicode data in Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier" error you can use this kind of code (in an MS environment, of course):

<?

$db = new COM("ADODB.Connection");

$dsn = "DRIVER={SQL Server}; SERVER={SERVER};UID={USER};PWD={PASS}; DATABASE={DB}";

$db->Open($dsn);

$rs = $db->Execute("SELECT * FROM table");



while (!$rs->EOF)

{

   echo $rs->Fields['column']->Value."<BR>";

   $rs->MoveNext();

}

?>



hope it helps.

mworku at yahoo dot com
03-Oct-2004 12:49


If you want to utilize the freetds.conf file db parameters within

mssql_connect() function 



<?

    putenv('FREETDSCONF=/etc/freetds.conf');



     /*

        mssql_connect('MSSQL_8.0' , 'user' , 'pwd'); 

        ....

        .... 

    */

?>



FreeTDS conf file



 [MSSQL_8.0]

    host = 10.254.254.10

    port = 1433

    tds version = 8.0

08-Aug-2004 06:11


For phpBB if you are having a problem with user cannot connect to database I found that gentiboard's comments were the answer.



You have to change sql secure connection to on in php.ini

marcos1979ar at yahoo dot com dot ar
10-Jun-2004 06:07


Red Hat 9.0   Freetds 0.62.3   Apache 2.0.49   PHP 5.0.ORC3



Instucction, that premit connect a server Linux with a server Windows 2000 Server with SQL Server. 



INSTALLING FREETDS

 

1-.  Download freetds -> www.freetds.org

2-.  tar -zxvf freetds-stable-tgz

3-.  cd freetds-0.62.3

4-.  ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/freetds --with-tdsver=8.0 --enable-msdblib --enable-dbmfix --with-gnu-ld



Note:  tdsver=8.0 if you use SQL 2000, tdsver=7.0 if you use SQL 7.0



5-.  make

6-.  make install

7-.  /usr/local/freetds/bin/tsql -S <ip of the server> -U <User SQL>



Note: For default User SQL is    sa     and the it have not password

For example: /usr/local/freetds/bin/tsql -S 198.168.100.2 -U sa



8-.  Add the next text in freetds.conf ( /usr/local/freetds/etc )

[TDS]

host = <ip of the Server with Sql>

port = 1433

tds version = 8.0



Note: If you use SQL 2000 then tds version = 8.0

if you use SQL 7.0 then tds version = 7.0



9-.  Add the next text in the file /etc/ld.so.conf

/usr/local/freetds/lib



INSTALLING  APACHE



1-.  Download apache  www.apache.org

2-.  tar -zxvf httpd-2.0.49.tar.gz

3-.  cd httpd-2.0.49

4-.  ./configure --prefix=/etc/httpd --enable-so

5-.  make

6-.  make install

7-.  Configure the file  -> httpd.conf ( /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf )

8-.  Probe the apache: /etc/httpd/bin/apachectl start

/etc/httpd/bin/apachectl stop



INSTALLING  PHP



1-.  Download the PHP in this site (www.php.net)

2-.  tar -zxvf php-5.0-ORC3.tar.gz

3-.  cd php-5.0-ORC3

4-.  ./configure --with-apxs2=/etc/httpd/bin/apxs --enable-versioning --with-mssql=/usr/local/freetds --disable-libxml

5-.  make

6-.  make install

7-.  cp php.ini-DIST /usr/local/lib

8-.  Add the next line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php



TESTING



<html>

<body>

<?php

$con = mssql_connect ("<ip of the server SQL>", "sa", "");

mssql_select_db ("<Data Base>", $con);

$sql= "SELECT * FROM <Table>";

$rs= mssql_query ($sql, $con);

echo "The field number one is: ";

echo mssql_result ($rs, 0, 0);

mssql_close ($con);

?>

</body>

</html>

Asad Moin
28-May-2004 10:48


I took the following steps to make PHP talk to SQL2000:



- Copy ntwdblib.dll file from your SQL server's  \winnt\system32 folder to the \winnt\system32 folder on the PHP box.



- Copy the php_mssql.dll from the 'dlls/' directory in distribution package to your windows/system (Win9.x) or winnt/system32 (WinNT, Win2000, XP) directory.



- Add or uncomment the following line under Windows Extentions in your php.ini file (\winnt\php.ini): extension=php_mssql.dll



Hope that helps.

andrew at power-grid dot com
26-May-2004 03:11


Ok, this took me a few days to get right but for those of you out there having a hard time with getting PHP to talk to SQL 2000 this is for you!  Personally for me the mssql plugin barely worked with sql 2000 and was VERY slow, here's your solution and also some good code to connect securely and quickly through ADO. I was having the worst time getting ADO to work as well, most sites do the driver part a different way.. for me the code below is the only thing that worked.

<?

$db = new COM("ADODB.Connection"); 

$dsn = "DRIVER={SQL Server}; SERVER={SERVER};UID={USER};PWD={PASS}; DATABASE={DB}"; 

$db->Open($dsn);

$rs = $db->Execute("SELECT * FROM table");



while (!$rs->EOF)

{

    echo $rs->Fields['column']->Value."<BR>"; 

    $rs->MoveNext(); 

}

?>

Arthur W Rudd
26-May-2004 02:37


I'm running apache 1.3.26 and php 4.3.6 on a linux server (debian), and connecting to SQL Server 2000 via php4-mssql and Freetds.



I managed to get a connection to the SQL server, but found that when I used the function mssql_query() to pass in a Select statement containing datetime columns, I would get the following message in Internet Explorer - "The page cannot be displayed".  When I removed the datetime column from the query, it worked fine, and returned a resultset.

Looked in the apache error.log file, and found the error "child pid xxxxxx exit signal segmentation fault".



After a lot of searching on the internet I stumbled upon an entry which was missing from my php.ini.  I added the line "mssql.datetimeconvert = Off" to the MSSQL section of pphp.ini, restarted Apache, and the problem went away.  Now I can select dates in SQL queries

jasenko at get2net dot dk
05-May-2004 02:46


If you get a crash trying to get currency from database with smallmoney datatype and big value (in my case it was 15000..), change datatype to money instead. The error is gone.



I'm using php 4.2.3 and MSSQL 7.0 on windows.

andrej at dairyweb dot com dot au
28-Apr-2004 04:49


if you are having problems with freeTDS, or like me you are trying to get access to unicode data from mssql.



try http://odbtp.sourceforge.net it is cross platform and (reportedly) faster than freeTDS. it is very stable and easy to configure.



i was originally trying to solve an error message of "Unicode data in Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier" and found this solution.



hope it helps someone.

elmer at web-axis dot net
28-Apr-2004 12:52


Here's something that could save you 2-3 days research trying to figure out:



<?php

putenv('TDSDUMP=/tmp/tds.log');

putenv('SYBASE=/usr/lib/freetds');

putenv('TDSVER=70');

?>



If you have problems getting the mssql functions to work try these varibles. MSSQL/PHP has problems dealing with different tds versions. 7.0 seems to work well with our server version, maybe a different version would work better with yours.

pmfa at versenet dot com
27-Apr-2004 12:26


If you're going to use freeTDS just to access mssql databases, supply the "--enable-msdblib" switch to the freeTDS configure script when building the library. This will fix some obscure problems, like the month in a date not being displayed correctly, more information in http://www.freetds.org/userguide/config.htm.

gentiboard2002 at yahoo dot de
19-Apr-2004 09:55


there's no documentation of the php.ini option mssql.secure_connection.



so i have here a MS SQL 2000 Server with Windows Authentication and a Windows 2003 Server with IIS 6. So it is clear that i cannot use the usual handling of a mssql_connect. 

I turned the mssql.secure_connection on.

I let the Windows IIS to run under an Service Account(normal user account without any special rights) in a Windows Domain, so i do have a authenticated connection to the SQL Server...



Everything works fine without any rewrite of the code...

19-Mar-2004 03:42


Note: DBLib is obsolete and only supports SQL Server 4.x, 6.5, 7.0 and 8.x.

jholland at cs dot selu dot edu
10-Dec-2003 04:37


To enable mssql in php 4.3.3 and above on linux/unix boxes, you must put this line in php.ini



extension=mssql.so