Cakephp is adding quotes to my query. How to fix this? - postgresql

Question

Cakephp is adding quotes to my field where i do some postgress functions. I use $this->paginate where the fields array looks like this:
'fields' => array( 'DealRegistration.id',
'DealRegistration.company_name',
'RequestSpecialPrice.total_price',
'RequestSpecialPrice.request_price',
'RequestSpecialPrice.created',
'RequestSpecialPrice.partner_status',
'RequestSpecialPrice.status',
'RequestSpecialPrice.discount',
"**concat('SP',lpad(CAST(RequestSpecialPrice.deal_registration_id as TEXT),8,'0'))**",
)
The query generated by cake looks like this:
SELECT concat('SP',lpad(CAST("RequestSpecialPrice"."deal_registration_id" AS **"TEXT"**),8,'0')) FROM table
If i remove the quotes from "TEXT" then the query works:
SELECT concat('SP',lpad(CAST("RequestSpecialPrice"."deal_registration_id" as **TEXT**),8,'0'))) FROM table
How can i force cakephp not to add those quotes?
L.E.
The solution was to use cake's virtual fields.
I've declared:
"concat('SP',lpad(CAST("RequestSpecialPrice"."deal_registration_id" AS "TEXT"),8,'0')) as aaa"
as a virtual field in the model and just selected aaa as a field.

Answer 1

When using native SQL functions like this, it's usually best to create a virtual field.
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/virtual-fields.html
app/Model/RequestSpecialPrice.php
public $virtualFields = array(
'my_virtual_field' => "CONCAT('SP', LPAD(CAST(RequestSpecialPrice.deal_registration_id as TEXT), 8, '0'))"
);
Usage
$this->RequestSpecialPrice->find('first', array(
'fields' => array(
'DealRegistration.id',
'DealRegistration.company_name',
'RequestSpecialPrice.total_price',
'RequestSpecialPrice.request_price',
'RequestSpecialPrice.created',
'RequestSpecialPrice.partner_status',
'RequestSpecialPrice.status',
'RequestSpecialPrice.discount',
'RequestSpecialPrice.my_virtual_field' // Use virtual field
)
);