How to stay sane with ExpressionEngines ambiguous channel field IDs? - expressionengine

Question

When writing queries or running through result sets, I'm constantly having to refer to fields as "field_id_X". I want to believe there is a saner way to go about this than defining a CONST for every field_id/name pair.
define(NAME_FIELD ,'field_id_3');
define(HEIGHT_FIELD, 'field_id_4');
foreach( $result as $row ){
$name = $row[NAME_FIELD]; // :(
}

Answer 1

Get an Array for field id's and names...
function getFieldReferences() {
$sql = "SELECT field_id, field_name
FROM exp_channel_fields
WHERE site_id = ".$this->EE->config->item('site_id');
$result = $this->EE->db->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows() > 0) {
$result = $result->result_array();
$finalResult = array();
foreach ($result as $row)
$finalResult[$row["field_id"]] = $row["field_name"];
return $finalResult;
} else {
return false;
}
}
Example conversion of a specific entry details $entry_id...
$sql = "SELECT exp_channel_data.*, exp_channel_titles.*, exp_channels.channel_name
FROM exp_channel_data, exp_channel_titles, exp_channels
WHERE exp_channel_data.entry_id = $entry_id
AND exp_cart_products.entry_id = $entry_id
AND exp_channel_titles.entry_id = $entry_id
LIMIT = 1";
$result = $this->EE->db->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows() > 0) {
$result = $result->result_array();
$result = $result[0];
//### Get Field Titles ###
$fieldReferences = getFieldReferences();
//### Replace Field ID reference with name ###
foreach ($result as $key => $value) {
if (substr($key,0,9) == "field_id_") {
$result[$fieldReferences[substr($key,9)]] = $value;
unset($result[$key]);
}
if (substr($key,0,9) == "field_ft_")
unset($result[$key]);
}//### End of foreach ###
}
Convert Member fields to names based on specified member $id...
$sql = "SELECT m_field_id, m_field_name
FROM exp_member_fields";
$result = $this->EE->db->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows() > 0) {
$memberFields = $result->result_array();
$sql = "SELECT exp_member_data.*, exp_members.email
FROM exp_member_data, exp_members
WHERE exp_member_data.member_id = $id
AND exp_members.member_id = $id
LIMIT 1";
$result = $this->EE->db->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows() > 0) {
$result = $result->result_array();
$rawMemberDetails = $result[0];
//### Loop through each Member field assigning it the correct name ###
foreach($memberFields as $row)
$memberDetails[ $row['m_field_name'] ] = $rawMemberDetails['m_field_id_'.$row['m_field_id']];
}

Answer 2

You could look up exp_channel_fields.field_name (or field_label) by the field_id you have from exp_channel_data.