Hi... I've been programming for years but I've never been stumped like this. Please help!!!!

I'm new to silverstripe and I've been searching for two days and can't seem to find a GOOD tutorial on how to do a simple sql query in my NewsPage.php and then retrieve the results in my NewsPage.ss

I need to translate the query: SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING(`Date`,1,4) AS Year FROM `ArticlePage`

using the 'DataObject::get' method.

If anyone can translate the above query into something like the function below, I will be eternally grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/*EXAMPLE FUNCTION For NewsPage.php*/
function NewsYear($num=3) {
$news = DataObject::get_one("NewsPage");
return ($news) ? DataObject::get("ArticlePage", "ParentID = $news->ID", "Date DESC", "", $num) : false;
//SELECT * FROM
}

/*EXAMPLE CODE For NewsPage.ss*/
<% control NewsYear %>
$Year
<% end_control %>

God bless!

Well, you could do:

$Date = substr($ArticlePage->Date,0,4);
or
$DateYear = date('Y',$ArticlePage->Date);

Bad idea?

edit:
Actually, what you want to do is:

/*EXAMPLE CODE For NewsPage.ss*/
<% control NewsYear %>
$Date.Year
<% end_control %>

http://api.silverstripe.org/2.4/sapphire/model/SS_Datetime.html

Hi Jay!

Thanks for your reply! My real problem is the structure of the function. What would the function in the controller (NewsPage.php) look like for the query "SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING(`Date`,1,4) AS Year FROM `ArticlePage`" ?

Many thanks!

Hi I found the solution using code from someone else's post:

My function in the NewsPage.php controller now looks like:

function NewsYear() {

$sqlQuery = new SQLQuery();
$sqlQuery->select = array(
'DISTINCT SUBSTRING(`Date`,1,4) AS Year');
$sqlQuery->from = array("ArticlePage_Live");
//$sqlQuery->where = array("ds_language_photos.pAlt LIKE '%SIA%'");
// get the raw SQL
$rawSQL = $sqlQuery->sql();
// execute and return a Query-object
$result = $sqlQuery->execute();
//setup our blank DataObjectSet to push SQL result data into it.
$dataObject1 = new DataObjectSet();
foreach($result as $row) {
//move the SQL result data to the DataObjectSet
$dataObject1->push(new ArrayData($row));
}

return $dataObject1;
//
}

And I retrieve the distinct Year I selected above in my NewsPage.ss using the following snippet:

<% control NewsYear %>
$Year
<% end_control %>

Praise the Lord!

On a side note, you do realise that MySQL has loads of date and time functions right?
Other then that, yeah use the SQLQuery class for DISCINCT and COUNT queries.