(PHP 5)
sqlite_create_aggregate(no version information, might be only in CVS)
SQLiteDatabase->createAggregate -- Register an aggregating UDF for use in SQL statementsObject oriented style (method):
class SQLiteDatabase {sqlite_create_aggregate() is similar to sqlite_create_function() except that it registers functions that can be used to calculate a result aggregated across all the rows of a query.
The key difference between this function and
sqlite_create_function() is that two functions are
required to manage the aggregate; step_func
is
called for each row of the result set. Your PHP function should
accumulate the result and store it into the aggregation context.
Once all the rows have been processed,
finalize_func
will be called and it should then
take the data from the aggregation context and return the result.
Callback functions should return a type understood by SQLite (i.e.
scalar type).
dbhandle
The SQLite Database resource; returned from sqlite_open() when used procedurally. This parameter is not required when using the object-oriented method.
function_name
The name of the function used in SQL statements.
step_func
Callback function called for each row of the result set.
finalize_func
Callback function to aggregate the "stepped" data from each row.
num_args
Hint to the SQLite parser if the callback function accepts a predetermined number of arguments.
In this example, we are creating an aggregating function that will
calculate the length of the longest string in one of the columns of the
table. For each row, the max_len_step function is
called and passed a context
parameter. The context
parameter is just like any other PHP variable and be set to hold an array
or even an object value. In this example, we are simply using it to hold
the maximum length we have seen so far; if the
string
has a length longer than the current
maximum, we update the context to hold this new maximum length.
After all of the rows have been processed, SQLite calls the
max_len_finalize function to determine the aggregate
result. Here, we could perform some kind of calculation based on the
data found in the context
. In our simple example
though, we have been calculating the result as the query progressed, so we
simply need to return the context value.
Note: The example above will not work correctly if the column contains binary data. Take a look at the manual page for sqlite_udf_decode_binary() for an explanation of why this is so, and an example of how to make it respect the binary encoding.
Tip: It is NOT recommended for you to store a copy of the values in the context and then process them at the end, as you would cause SQLite to use a lot of memory to process the query - just think of how much memory you would need if a million rows were stored in memory, each containing a string 32 bytes in length.
Tip: You can use sqlite_create_function() and sqlite_create_aggregate() to override SQLite native SQL functions.