PHP storing a two dimension array from MySQL query - php

Question

I have a simple question. I have an array that has two columns (id, name) that is a result of a MySQL query. I want to store the result of the query into a array variable so i can access each element when i need to.
I am able to store a one dimension array like the following:
$array = array();
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$array[] = $row['name'];
}
How can I store and access a two dimensional array? Also is it best to use a for loop or while loop to store these?

Answer 1

Simply do this:
$array = array();
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$array[] = $row;
}
To access your results you can do this:
$firstResultRow = $array[0];
$firstResultName = $array[0]['id'];
$firstResultName = $array[0]['name'];
This will tell you if a particular row exists:
if(isset($array[$x])) {
$aRow = $row[$x];
// do stuff with $aRow;
}
This will give you a row count for your array:
$rowCount = count($array);
This will set up a loop through your array:
foreach($array as $index => $row) {
$id = $row['id']
$name = $row['name'];
// $index will have the array index of the current row. 0 -> $rowCount - 1
}

Answer 2

Don't specifically store the index of $row but rather store the whole row.
$array = array();
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$array[] = $row;
}
Then $array will have the following structure:
$array = [
[
'id'=> ...,
'name' => ...,
],
...
];
To initially access all of the results from [mysqli_fetch_assoc][1] you will want to use the while loop like you are, mysqli_fetch_assoc will continue to output results until it doesn't have any more data. Then at that point mysqli_fetch_assoc will return NULL. This will signal to your while loop to stop iterating.
Then to access variables inside of your $array, I recommend using foreach.
You could then do:
foreach ($array as $row) {
do something with $row['name'] or $row['id']
}
You could also use a for loop, but it takes more work IMO. Compare the above with this alternative:
for ($i = 0; $i < count($array); $i++) {
$row = $array[$i];
do something with $row['name'] or $row['id']
}