Get top 4 highest rows based on ID - php

Question

I'm trying to grab the highest 4 rows in a table and assign variables to them so that I can use them throughout my code.
Here is what I was able to get so far...
<?php
$username="USERNAME";
$password="PASSWORD";
$database="DATABASE";
$conn = mysqli_connect(localhost, $username, $password, $database);
$query = "SELECT * from `shoutbox` ORDER BY `id` DESC LIMIT 4";
$result = $conn->query($query);
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$name =($row["name"]);
$message =($row["message"]);
$time =($row["time"]);
}
?>
How am I able to assign more variables to get the next 3 rows?

Answer 1

I believe it's (sorry, long day so I might be off)
$result = array();
while(...){
$result[] = $row;
}

Answer 2

I suggest you loop through the result set and assign each iteration to an array, you can then pull the values back out of the array later.
Here is a working update to your code
// ...
$query = "SELECT * from `shoutbox` ORDER BY `id` DESC LIMIT 4";
$result = $conn->query($query);
// create array to hold queried result set
$output = array();
// loop through result set and assign each row to a key in $output array
// Note: the fetch_assoc() method auto-increments an internal pointer
// so as you spin through the result set $row will move down the rows
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$output[] = $row;
}
// $output now contains an associative array on each key representing
// each row, so to access each row:
foreach($output as $row) {
echo $row["name"] . "<br>";
echo $row["message"] . "<br>";
echo $row["message"] . "<hr>";
}

Answer 3

Define $result as array after while
$result = array();
while($row= .... ){
$var= $row['name'];
.............
}