Assigning multiple variables with multiple column in php

Question

I use:

foreach($image_files as $index=>$file)}

to loop between pictures in a directory and list them in a webpage, every picture has three related column in the database (ID, NAME, DESCRIPTION) ... so I used

SELECT `NAME`, `DESCRIPTION` FROM `pic_info` WHERE `ID`= '$counter' ...

but i don't know how can I split the

$rows = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)

to 2 variable for each picture ... for example : for the first pic I need

$name[0] = pic1 and $description[0] = blahblahblah1 ... 
$name[1] = pic2 , $description[1] = blahblahblah2 ...

using

foreach ($rows as $key => $value) {$$key = $value; }

just gives me a combined data like $name[0] and $description[0] that I don't know how can I split it to two variable ... and it'll be appreciated if someone show another ways to SELECT two column in a table and assign it to two variables .

Don't use mysql_fetch_array(), use mysql_fetch_assoc() instead, that way you can fetch the single entries one by one in a while loop. This is shown in millions of examples out there on the net. Plus it scales better, since it processes sequencially instead of loading all entries into RAM, that might be thousands of entries. That said: the old mysql extension has been deprecated log ago, this is documented, you should switch to either the newer mysqli extension or PDO and make use of prepared statements. — arkascha
– arkascha, Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 16:33

Patrick Q · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 17:42:53Z

1

It's a bit unclear what you're asking, but I think you might want something like this

$names = array();
$descriptions = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($results))
{
    $names[] = $row["NAME"];
    $descriptions[] = $row["DESCRIPTION"];
}

edited Jan 17, 2014 at 17:42

answered Jan 17, 2014 at 16:41

Patrick Q

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7 Comments

Mark Baker Over a year ago

Or (if this is what OP wants) make use of the new array_column() function in PHP 5.5

Patrick Q Over a year ago

@user3078441 What you do get when you print_r($row); inside the foreach?

Patrick Q Over a year ago

@user3078441 Then you have a problem somewhere else. What about print_r($rows); before the foreach? If nothing, try var_dump($results); and see what you get for that. Do some basic debugging.

user3078441 Over a year ago

@Patric Q:Sorry I missed "s" in rows=mysql_fetch_assoc ... print_r gives me "hello1234" , NAME column for id = 1 is "hello" and DESCRIPTION for id = 1 is "1234" ... echo $names[0] gives "h" and echo $names[1] gives "1" ... $names[1] gives nothing ! I wonder why two column NAME and DESCRIPTION are assigned in $names !

Patrick Q Over a year ago

@user3078441 See my updated answer. Remove your current use of $rows = mysql_fetch_arry($result, MYSQL_ASSOC); and use what I have instead. While doing this, keep in mind that you really shouldn't be using the mysql_* functions at all, as they have been deprecated.

|

Mark Baker · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 16:47:36Z

0

Requires PHP >=5.5, but this might achieve what you're after

$names = array_column($rows, 'NAME');
$descriptions = array_column($rows, 'DESCRIPTION');

or simply build the arrays you want while looping through the resultset of your SQL query

answered Jan 17, 2014 at 16:47

Mark Baker

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2 Comments

Patrick Q Over a year ago

Some of use would be happy to be able to use 5.4, let alone 5.5 :)

Mark Baker Over a year ago

@PatrickQ - PHP 5.6 is almost ready for alpha1 release.... I guess I'm lucky in my professional environment because I can decide for myself which version of PHP I want to use... sadly I'm still forced to retain 5.2 compatibility for my Open Source work :(

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