Get the variables out of the while loop - php

Question

I would understand if there is a way to store the variables out of the while loop.
For example, I have a slide show that shows the images for each category present and a button to see the images gallery related to the category. The button, for graphical issues, should stay out of the CSS class that contains the while.
This is the current code:
<div class="carousel-inner"> <!-- start carousel -->
$macrocat = "SELECT * FROM tbl_category WHERE cat_parent_id = 0";
$result = dbQuery($macrocat);
while($row = dbFetchAssoc($result)) {
extract($row);
echo $cat_name;
echo $cat_description;
}
</div> <!-- end carousel -->
and the class out of the while where I have to get cat_id:
<div class="social-caption">
<a class="btn btn-large btn-primary" href="categorie.php?id=<?php echo $cat_id; ?>">Gallery</a>
</div>
How can I fix the problem?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Store the categories first:
<div class="carousel-inner"> <!-- start carousel -->
$macrocat = "SELECT * FROM tbl_category WHERE cat_parent_id = 0";
$cats = array[];
$result = dbQuery($macrocat);
while($row = dbFetchAssoc($result)) {
extract($row);
echo $cat_name;
echo $cat_description;
$cats[] = $cat_id;
}
</div> <!-- end carousel -->
Then later you can use them:
foreach($cats as $cat)
{
echo "<div>".$cat."</div>";
}