retrieving information for database

[duffman014]

hey there im really new to php.. i'm trying to understand exactly how php pulls information from a database... and can u just pull one piece of information from a table or do u have to pull the whole array and then pull out the one piece of information...  such as this

 

do u have to query the database every time u want one piece of information or can u just keep it the " connection" open and pull whenver u want

 

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tbl_name") or die(mysql_error());
$row1 = mysql_fetch_array($data) or die(mysql_error());
$tentqty = $bullshit['tentqty'];
$shackqty = $row1['shackqty'];
echo "tentqty=".$bullshit['tentqty'];

[TeNDoLLA]

No you don't need to pull the whole array. You can use WHERE conditions to make more explicit queries. The connection is usually open untill you close it or untill the script ends execution so no need to make new connection for every query. If you are getting different information for different purposes then you need to query again. You can also use LIMIT to restrict the amount of results returned from db. I suggest you read some MySQL tutorial to get the basics.