identifying column number in PHP mysqli_fetch_row() WHILE loop - php

Question

I'm trying to identify whether I am looking at the first column in the array.
I haven't tried anything, but googled plenty and cannot find a solution.
while($row = mysqli_fetch_row($sql)) {
echo '<tr>';
foreach ($row as $col) {
if () //NEED CODE HERE
echo "<td><a href = 'https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup' target = '_blank'>$col</a></td>";
}
echo '</tr>';
}

Answer 1

mysqli_fetch_row fetches "one row of data from the result set and returns it as an enumerated array, where each column is stored in an array offset starting from 0 (zero)." So the key of the column is the same as column order.
So you can do this:
while($row = mysqli_fetch_row($sql)) {
echo '<tr>';
foreach ($row as $key => $col) {
if ($key === 0) {
echo "<td><a href = 'https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup' target = '_blank'>$col</a></td>";
}
}
echo '</tr>';
}
But column is subjected to changes in database structure and SQL query changes. I would personally prefer mysqli_fetch_assoc or mysqli_fetch_object so I can use the column by name instead of order number. Its less error prone. For example,
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($sql)) {
echo '<tr>';
foreach ($row as $key => $col) {
if ($key === 'ip_address') {
echo "<td><a href = 'https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup' target = '_blank'>$col</a></td>";
}
}
echo '</tr>';
}
Note: $sql here should be a mysqli_query result instead of the actual SQL string.