Codeigniter parentheses in dynamic Active Record query

From the CI wiki:

The codeignighter ActiveRecord feature allows you to create SQL queries relatively simply and database-independant, however there isno specific support for including parenthesis in an SQL query.

For example when you want a where statement to come out simmilarly to the folowing:

WHERE (field1 = value || field2 = value) AND (field3 = value2 || field4 = value2) 

This can be worked around by feeding a string to the CI->db->where() function, in this case you will want to specifically escape your values.

See the following example:

$value=$this->db->escape($value);$value2=$this->db->escape($value2);$this->db->from('sometable');$this->db->where("($field = $value || $field2 = $value)");$this->db->where("($field3 = $value2 || $field4 = $value2)");$this->db->get(); 

A simmilar workaround can be used for LIKE clauses:

$this->db->where("($field LIKE '%$value%' || $field2 LIKE '%$value%')");$this->db->where("($field3 LIKE '%$value2%' || $field4 LIKE '%$value2%')"); 

In the CI 3.0-dev you can add groups in query:

$this->db->select('id, title')->group_start()->or_like([ 'title' => $s, 'id' => $s ])->group_end()                ->where([ 'b_del' => 0 ]);

Produces:

SELECT `id`, `title`, `venda1`FROM `itens`WHERE   (`title` LIKE '%a%' ESCAPE '!'OR  `id` LIKE '%a%' ESCAPE '!' )AND `b_del` =0 

One of best feature to save your query when you applying multiple where or_where clauses.

$this->db->group_start();$this->db->where();$this->db->or_where();$this->db->group_end();

Happy Coding. :)