Codeigniter select distinct and passing the list of variables - php

Question

Just want to SELECT DISTINCT country FROM table WHERE user_id=$user_id, pass the country list from model to controller and then pass the JSON representation of the country list but as I am a newbie in Codeigniter I am not sure if wrote the query correctly and if I return the list or a single value. Could you please check my code.
Model:
public function did_get_country_list($user_id) {
$this->db->distinct('country');
$this->db->where('user_id',$user_id);
$query = $this->db->get('table');
if ($query->num_rows() >= 1) {
foreach ($query->result() as $row)
{
$country = $row->country;
}
return $country;
}
else{
return false;
}
}
Controller:
$country = $this->model_users->did_get_country_plans($user_id);
echo json_encode($country);

Answer 1

Your code looks almost ok to me, but I think you should change 2 lines:
1) Remove the check for num_rows before the actual query.
2) To return an array of countries, add [] at the end of $country to push the new values.
So, instead of this snippet:
if ($query->num_rows() >= 1) {
foreach ($query->result() as $row)
{
$country = $row->country;
}
return $country;
}
else{
return false;
}
You would have:
$country = false;
foreach ($query->result() as $row)
{
$country[] = $row->country;
}
return $country;