Question

I am trying to find out which is the proper way to fetch data from my database. Either way works, but what’s the difference; an in-depth explanation?

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM _$setprofile");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)) {
    $username = $row['user'];
    $password = $row['pass'];
    echo "$username:$password";
}

versus the function below…

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT user,pass FROM _$setprofile");
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($sql)) {
    echo "$row[0]:$row[1]";
}

This is something I’ve always wanted to know.

Answer 1

The difference is you’re re-assigning the variables in the first example. But you could just say:

while(list($username, $password) = mysql_fetch_array($sql)) {
    echo "$username:$password";
}

Or you could pull out a hash

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql)) {
    echo "{$row['username']}:{$row['password']}";
}

The right way depends on the application or your preference, I personally avoid the numeric indexed arrays unless I specifically need them. Who wants to try to keep a mental tab of what data is in which index?