Performing raw SQL queries in Yii2?

Question

I have written the below queries as I migrate my PHP website to the Yii2 framework. I want to add them to my controller so as to display the top 10 bets won. I have tried going through many Yii2 database classes but I cannot get it to work.

My tables are:

users:

id | user_name | user_status | ...other columns...

bets:

id | user_id | date_time |...other columns...| balance_return

The queries I want to get in Yii2 are:

$query_all = $dbh->query("
    SELECT SUM(bets.balance_return) AS total_win
         , bets.user_id
         , users.user_name
         , users.user_status
      FROM bets INNER JOIN users ON bets.user_id = users.id
     WHERE users.user_status = 'verified'
       AND bets.date_time > " . $start_date . "
  GROUP BY bets.user_id
  ORDER BY total_win DESC
");

The variable start_date is a period of 6 months which I calculate according to time() Also please note that balance_return is every win a user got so its sum determines the ranking.

The second query is:

$qwi = $dbh->query("
    SELECT SUM(bets.balance_return) AS total_win
         , bets.user_id
         , users.user_name
         , users.user_status
      FROM bets INNER JOIN users ON bets.user_id = users.id
     WHERE users.user_status = 'verified'
       AND bets.date_time > " . $start_date . "
  GROUP BY bets.user_id
  ORDER BY total_win DESC LIMIT 0,10
");

Solution

You can execute raw sql like this

$connection = Yii::$app->getDb();
$command = $connection->createCommand("
    SELECT SUM(bets.balance_return) AS total_win
     , bets.user_id
     , users.user_name
     , users.user_status
    FROM bets INNER JOIN users ON bets.user_id = users.id
    WHERE users.user_status = 'verified'
    AND bets.date_time > :start_date
    GROUP BY bets.user_id
    ORDER BY total_win DESC", [':start_date' => '1970-01-01']);

$result = $command->queryAll();

I recommend reading: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/yii-db-connection.html#createCommand()-detail

The first parameter is the sql (with placeholder(s)) and the second part is an array of values to be used with the placeholders.

Comments

[Lenny Carmi]

Thank you so much for answering the question. I managed to get it to work after getting stuck for two days. Also I wanted to note that when I call $connection = Yii::$app->getDb(); from a module controller I receive an error, I had to call $connection = \Yii::$app->getDb(); Why would this be?

[Jap Mul]

The error was because of the namespace. If you want to use Yii without the slash you have to add use Yii; at the top of your class.

[David J Eddy]

As a best practice I make it a habit of doing \Yii::$app... anywhere I use the Yii object inline.