While loop and reusing fetch_assoc() - php

Question

For a project I am building a flash game website, and I would like to know how to reuse this piece of code:
$result = $conn->query("SELECT DISTINCT `category` FROM beoordeling");
<?php
echo "<div class='row list jumbotron'>";
while($data = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "<div class='col-md-3'><a href='category.php?id=" . $data['category'] . "' class='thumbnail'><h4>" . ucfirst($data['category']) . " games</h4>";
echo "<img src='" . $imgLocation . $data['category'].".jpg' class='img-rounded' alt='" . $data['category'] . "' width='304' heigth='182'>";
echo "</a></div>";
}
echo "</div>";
?>
I need to be able to use the $data['category'] again for dynamicly filling my menu with all of the games categories. If I just try to use the while loop again but then only one will work. The other one stays empty. Thanks alot!

Answer 1

You need to adjust the result pointer to point to the beginning of the result set so that you could use it again. Make use of mysqli_result::data_seek() method for this.
Here's the reference:
mysqli_result::data_seek()
So your code should be like this:
<?php
$result = $conn->query("SELECT DISTINCT `category` FROM beoordeling");
echo "<div class='row list jumbotron'>";
while($data = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "<div class='col-md-3'><a href='category.php?id=" . $data['category'] . "' class='thumbnail'><h4>" . ucfirst($data['category']) . " games</h4>";
echo "<img src='" . $imgLocation . $data['category'].".jpg' class='img-rounded' alt='" . $data['category'] . "' width='304' heigth='182'>";
echo "</a></div>";
}
echo "</div>";
// adjust the result pointer to point to the beginning of the result set
$result->data_seek(0);
// now you can use the result set again
// for example, you can iterate through it using while loop again
?>