Understanding mysqli_fetch_array() - php

Question

Is there a way to make the code below cleaner?
I wanted to access the rows of $query4week like this: $query4week[0].
But mysqli_query() returns an Object on which I don't know how to access its particular rows. So, using fetch_array and a for loop I decided to create my own index.
$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM meals ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 7";
$query4week = mysqli_query($con, $sql2) or die(mysqli_error($con));
for ($i = 0; $result = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC); $i++)
{
$meal4week[$i] = $result['meal'];
}
I am still learning PHP and yet quite weak with OOP topics, please be patient :-)

Answer 1

Do it in this way
$i = 0;
while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC))
{
$meal4week[$i] = $result['meal'];
$i++;
}
should work.

Answer 2

You shouldn't need a for loop if your fetching an associative array.
$i = 0;
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC))
{
$meal4week[$i] = $row['meal'];
$i++;
}

Answer 3

There are already some perfectly reasonable answers here, but this is a little long for a comment. If all you are creating is a numerically indexed array starting with index 0, you don't need to explicitly define the index.
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
$meal4week[] = $row['meal'];
}
should work just fine. No $i necessary.

Answer 4

mysqli_query returns you a resource which represents the query result. You need to use the mysql_fetch_* functions to iterate over the result row by row. So yes, you need some kind of loop, if you are interested in more than the first row.