mysql fetching only one field

Question

Is there an easy method to extract only one field. For instance:

$sql = "SELECT field1 FROM table";
$res = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
$arr = mysql_fetch_assoc($res);
$field1 = $arr['field1'];

My feeling says this could be done much easier.

Answer 1

Maybe

$sql = "SELECT field1 FROM table";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
$field1 = mysql_fetch_object($result)->field1;

Answer 2

You can use mysql_result().

string mysql_result ( resource $result , int $row [, mixed $field= 0 ] )
Retrieves the contents of one cell from a MySQL result set.

Answer 3

$field1 = mysql_fetch_object(mysql_query("SELECT field1 FROM table"))->field1;