Question

I have the following code which returns a simple array if one result is found and a nested array if more.

$query = @mysql_query( $q );
if ( $query ) {
    $this->num_rows = mysql_num_rows( $query );
    for ( $i = 0; $i < $this->num_rows; $i++ ) {
        $r = mysql_fetch_array( $query );
        $key = array_keys( $r );
        for ( $x = 0; $x < count($key); $x++ ) {
            // Sanitizes keys so only alphavalues are allowed
            if( !is_int( $key[$x] ) ) {
                if ( mysql_num_rows( $query ) > 1 ) {
                    $this->result[$i][$key[$x]] = $r[$key[$x]];
                } else if ( mysql_num_rows( $query ) < 1 ) {
                    $this->result = null;
                } else {
                    $this->result[$key[$x]] = $r[$key[$x]];
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
} else {
    return false;
}

How to force it to always return a nested array and not a simple one?

Answer 1

I think your code can be reduced to:

$query = @mysql_query( $q );

if ( $query ) {
    $this->num_rows = mysql_num_rows( $query );
    if($this->num_rows) {
        $this->result = array();
        while(($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query))) {
            $this->result[] = $row;
        }
    }
    else {
        $this->result = null;
    }
    return true;
}
else {
    return false;
}

Reference: mysql_fetch_assoc

Tip: Read and browse the documentation.