Printing one field

[waynew]

Even when I'm only extracting one field from a table, I always use

 

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
    echo $row['example'];
}

 

Is there a better way to go about printing out only one value (where you know they'll be only one value) or do you have to always use that while loop?

[lemmin]

Just don't use the loop.

$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
echo $row['example'];

[MatthewJ]

If you mean one field... Then use your SELECT to only get the field you need.

 

The loop is for displaying multiple records not multple fields.

[mbeals]

or

 

$value = mysql_result($resource,$row_num,'col_name');

 

mysql_fetch_assoc and mysql_fetch_array return an [associative] array of the entire row.  If you just want a single value, mysql_result gives it to you.  just replace $row_num with 0 (zero) if only a single row is going to be returned.  If the query only returns a single attribute, then you can leave the 'col_name' off as well.

 

so something like

 

<?php
$query = "SELECT COUNT(`names`) FROM table";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num_names = mysql_result($result,0);
?>

 

would set $num_names to the COUNT(`names`);