efficiency question

[Derleek]

I always run into this problem and i'm curious what would be the most efficient way to approach it.

 

I have to select up to 65 names from a database and display them in 10 different drop down menu's.

 

would it be more efficient to run a bit of code 650 times

 

code: (i am not sure if the MySQL stuff is right, i'm new and experimenting  )

<?
//QUERY to set the rider ID for pre-entry list of race
$query = "SELECT racer_id FROM race_racer WHERE race_id = $race_id AND class_id = $class_id"; 

$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

$R_id = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_ASSOC))
	{
	$R_id= $row['racer_id'];
	$q=0;
	$sql = "SELECT name FROM Racers WHERE racer_id = $r_id";
	$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
	$row = $result;
		$name =$row;
	}

?>

 

or store all of the names into an array and go through the array 10 times.

 

Once again i'm relatively new to the php/MySQL realms so go easy on me 

 

[lemmin]

There is no reason to put the data into an array when you have it in a result set. Once you have the result set, loop through it 10 times, as you would an array. You can use mysql_data_seek to set it back to the beginning:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-data-seek.php