alternative to mysql_fetch_array()

Question

I want to execute a query and either it will return one row or none. I don't want to use mysql_fetch_array(). What else can I do?

Answer 1

You could write a function to do it for you.

function get_one_row($query) {
 $result = mysql_query($query);
 $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
 return($row);
}

Or are you trying to eschew mysql_fetch_array entirely?

Answer 2

Alternatives to mysql_fetch_array()

1. mysql_fetch_object()
2. mysql_fetch_assoc()
3. mysql_fetch_row()

You don't have to use a while loop. Using mysql_num_rows() you can check the number of returned rows. This works on the resultset that is returned from a mysql_query() call.

$res = mysql_query('select 0');
if (mysql_num_rows($res)) {
    $data = mysql_fetch_array($res);
}

Answer 3

If you've got only one (or zero) rows to pull.

$result = mysql_query(/* ... */);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
mysql_free_result($result);

If there is a row, $row will have it. If not - $row will be false. No need for while().

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If you just want to know how many rows you've got

$count = mysql_num_rows($result);