If a row of data is retrieved, an array is returned. If there are no more rows to retrieve, null is returned. If an error occurs, false is returned.

Based on the value of the $fetchType parameter, the returned array can be a numerically indexed array, an associative array, or both. By default, an array with both numeric and associative keys is returned. The data type of a value in the returned array will be the default PHP data type. For information about default PHP data types, see Default PHP Data Types.

If a column with no name is returned, the associative key for the array element will be an empty string (""). For example, consider this Transact-SQL statement that inserts a value into a database table and retrieves the server-generated primary key:

INSERT INTO Production.ProductPhoto (LargePhoto) VALUES (?);

SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY()

If the result set returned by the SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY() portion of this statement is retrieved as an associative array, the key for the returned value will be an empty string ("") because the returned column has no name. To avoid this, you can retrieve the result as a numeric array, or you can specify a name for the returned column in the Transact-SQL statement. The following is one way to specify a column name in Transact-SQL:

SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY() AS PictureID

If a result set contains multiple columns without names, the value of the last unnamed column will be assigned to the empty string ("") key.

The following example retrieves each row of a result set as an associative array. The example assumes that the SQL Server and the AdventureWorks database are installed on the local computer. All output is written to the console when the example is run from the command line.

<?php
/* Connect to the local server using Windows Authentication and
specify the AdventureWorks database as the database in use. */
$serverName = "(local)";
$connectionInfo = array( "Database"=>"AdventureWorks");
$conn = sqlsrv_connect( $serverName, $connectionInfo);
if( $conn === false )
{
     echo "Could not connect.\n";
     die( print_r( sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}

/* Set up and execute the query. */
$tsql = "SELECT FirstName, LastName
         FROM Person.Contact
         WHERE LastName='Alan'";
$stmt = sqlsrv_query( $conn, $tsql);
if( $stmt === false)
{
     echo "Error in query preparation/execution.\n";
     die( print_r( sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}

/* Retrieve each row as an associative array and display the results.*/
while( $row = sqlsrv_fetch_array( $stmt, SQLSRV_FETCH_ASSOC))
{
      echo $row['LastName'].", ".$row['FirstName']."\n";
}

/* Free statement and connection resources. */
sqlsrv_free_stmt( $stmt);
sqlsrv_close( $conn);
?>

Concepts

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