Unset Not Clearing Array Key/Value - php

Question

I have form submission that redirects based on the results of a survey. On the landing page, I call a function to process query string, query the database and return results as an array for in-page processing.
function surveyResults() {
if($goodtogo) {
$survey = $wpdb->get_results(...,ARRAY_A);
$name_has_space = strpos(trim($q_name_field[0]),' ');
if($name_has_space === false) {
$q_first_name = $q_name_field[0];
$name_has_num = preg_match('/[0-9]/',$q_first_name);
$q_first_name = ((0 === $name_has_num) ? " ".ucfirst($q_first_name).", " : '');
} else {
$q_first_name = substr(trim($q_name_field[0]),0,$name_has_space);
$name_has_num = preg_match('/[0-9]/',$q_first_name);
$q_first_name = ((0 === $name_has_num) ? " ".ucfirst($q_first_name).", " : '');
}
$survey['name']['q_fname'] = $q_first_name;
$results = $survey;
} else {
$results = false;
}
return $results;
}
Output:
Array (
[0]=> Array (
'key' => 'value'
)
...
[n]=> Array (
'key' => 'value'
)
['name'] => Array (
[q_fname] => MyName
)
)
Which is perfect – except – each time I test the page, the $survey[0-n] results change as queried, but the $survey['name']['q_fname'] still holds the previous value MyName.
I have tried adding unset($survey['name']['q_fname']); immediately after setting $results = $survey; but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Do I need to unset($results) or use a reference &$fname...
What am I missing here?
Thanks

Answer 1

I'm macgregor, and I'm an idiot. Missed a critical piece of condition in the query.