What does the $this->db->select portion of the CI Active Record API do?

Question

I have code like this:

$this->db->select('title')->from('entries')->where('id', 1);
$query = $this->db->get();
echo $query->row('title');

Which echoes the title from the entries table where the id is equal to 1.

Why doesn't it work without the 'title in row function?

echo $query->row();

As it returns the first row?

Why do I have to have 'title' in both places ($query->row and $this->db->select), in order for this to work? It doesn't make sense to me.

Can anybody explain how this works, supposedly provide with alternative ways to get the value from the database?

Answer 1

$this->db->select('title')->from('entries')->where('id', 1);

Generates

SELECT title FROM entries WHERE id = 1

$query retrieves the result in an array:

array( [0] => array( [title] => 'your title' ))

row('title') returns the title column from the first row of your result array.

The reason you need to tell it which column to get is because row and get can be used with many columns.