Question

If I am doing a PHP MYSQL select of a table using the where clause that will return only 1 result, is there a simpler way to do this:

$result = mysql_query("select * FROM cart WHERE ID='".$cartID."'") or die(mysql_error());
$cartrec = mysql_fetch_array($result);

Is the $cartrec = mysql_fetch_array($result); needed or could I just do:
$cartrec = mysql_query("select * FROM cart WHERE ID='".$cartID."'") or die(mysql_error());

or is there a better syntax to use?

Answer 1

mysql_query gets a result set (actually, a resource that refers to a result set) based on your query. This is the set of records that match your query.

mysql_fetch_array gets the first record from a result set, and returns it as an array.

So, up until you’ve called mysql_fetch_array, you haven’t gotten the data in a usable format.

Side note: Consider using PDO