left join in zend framework - zend-framework

Question

I am new in ZF and i would like to left join a table named country on country.id=firm_dtl.firm_country
$firmobj->fetchAll($firmobj->select($this)->where("firm_name like '$alpha%'")->order('firm_name'));
How can i do this.
I am trying with this code :-
$firmobj->select($this)->joinLeft(array("c"=>"country"), "c.id = firm_dtl.firm_country","c.name")->where("firm_name like '$alpha%'")->order('firm_name');

Answer 1

Here are some things that you can try to get the left join working and also to improve security.
I usually build my select statements across many lines and so I like to put it in a variable. To debug, I simply comment out the lines that I don't need.
$select = $firmobj->select()->from('country');
You'll want to setIntegrityCheck(false) because you probably won't be changing and committing the results from the query. Here's a quote from the ZF documentation about it.
The Zend_Db_Table_Select is primarily used to constrain and validate
so that it may enforce the criteria for a legal SELECT query. However
there may be certain cases where you require the flexibility of the
Zend_Db_Table_Row component and do not require a writable or deletable
row. for this specific user case, it is possible to retrieve a row or
rowset by passing a FALSE value to setIntegrityCheck().
$select->setIntegrityCheck(false);
Here is where you join. You can replace field1, field2, fieldn with the fields in the firm_dtl table that you want to see in the results.
$select->joinLeft(array('c' => 'country'), 'c.id = firm_dtl.firm_country', array('field1', 'field2', 'fieldn'));
Use parameter substitution to avoid SQL injection attacks.
$select->where('firm_name LIKE ?', "$alpha%");
And finally order the results and fetch the row set.
$select->order('firm_name');
$rowSet = $firmobj->fetchAll($select);

Answer 2

The 3rd parameter of joinLeft function should be an array of columns you want to fetch.
$firmobj->select($this)
->joinLeft(array("c"=>"country"), "c.id = firm_dtl.firm_country", array("c.name"))
->where("firm_name like '$alpha%'")
->order('firm_name');
Additionally, the better way is to use where function this way:
->where("firm_name like ?", $alpha . "%")
This way is the safer solution.