There is no function in PHP equivalent to VB or ASP’s left. There is a more robust function called substr. Here’s a function from the forums that replicates the functionality.
function left($string, $count){
return substr($string, 0, $count);
}
Getting PHP and Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) to play nice
I have a Windows Server 2008 with IIS7 installed. I’ve been pounding my head against a Microsoft constructed brick wall for the past day trying to get PHP to interact with SQL Server 2008.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=20098
A brief Google search pulls up a download page from Microsoft with the newest SQL Server drivers for PHP:
In the package you download, there are about 9 different files. You only need to install 1 or 2 and there are no instructions as to which one is the one to install.
In my case, even installing ALL of them didn’t work. My PHPInfo() said there was sql server support, but it wouldn’t connect to the sql server.
FINALLY, I found a single post that explained it. Turned out my PHP version which was installed by IIS7 was too old! For SqlServer to work – you have to have PHP 5.2.4 or newer.
The help instructions that come with it aren’t specific enough.
Lastly, here’s a great link that goes over how to actually use the sqlserver connection. Good god!
One other thing to note if you’re used to working with .NET or Classic ASP. In PHP the field names are case sensitive.