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phpgt/sqlbuilder gives us a structured way to write SQL in PHP without giving up control of the SQL itself.

Instead of concatenating fragments of query strings throughout application code, we can represent a query as a class, extend it when a new use case appears, or build one fluently at the point of use.

Note

In PHP.GT/WebEngine applications, this library is most commonly used alongside phpgt/database when writing PHP-backed query collections.

Features

• Class-based select, insert, update, and delete queries.
• Fluent builders for common one-off query construction.
• Reusable condition objects for grouped where and having clauses.
• Helper condition classes for equality and comparison expressions.
• Subqueries and nested query composition.
• Table-definition query classes for create table, alter table, and drop table.
• Simple, portable SQL syntax generation.

Out of scope

• It does not execute SQL.
• It does not inspect your schema.

A small example

use GT\SqlBuilder\Query\SelectQuery;

class StudentSelect extends SelectQuery {
	public function select():array {
		return [
			"id",
			"name",
			"dateOfBirth",
		];
	}

	public function from():array {
		return [
			"student",
		];
	}

	public function where():array {
		return [
			"deletedAt is null",
		];
	}
}

class ActiveStudentSelect extends StudentSelect {
	public function where():array {
		return array_merge(parent::where(), [
			"status = 'active'",
		]);
	}
}

echo new ActiveStudentSelect();

Output:

select
	`id`,
	`name`,
	`dateOfBirth`
from
	`student`
where
	`deletedAt` is null
and
	`status` = 'active'

That prints a valid SQL query, but the important part is the shape of the code: the base query stays in one place, and the variation extends it instead of repeating it.

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To see the two main ways of working with the library before we start building anything, continue with Overview.