HTML select not inflating correctly from PHP array - php

Question

I am trying to create a drop down menu of usernames or a <select> as it's known in HTML. However I am only getting the last value back from my array and I can't figure out why.
PHP
function getUserName($db) {
try {
$sql = 'SELECT members.name FROM members';
$query_an = $db->query($sql);
$count = $query_an->rowCount();
if ($count > 0) {
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names = array();
$names[] = $row['name'];
}
return $names;
}
} catch(PDOException $e) {
die($e->getMessage());
}
}
HTML
<select>
<?php $names = getUserName($db); foreach($names as $key => $value) { ?>
<option value="<?php echo $key ?>"><?php echo $value ?></option>
<?php }?>
</select>
I'm fairly sure the HTML section of my code is solid. I think the error lies in how I'm adding values to my $names array but after staring at it for a half an hour I can't see it. Thanks for any help/fresh eyes.

Answer 1

You need to declare your array outside the loop
if ($count > 0) {
$names = array();
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names[] = $row['name'];
}
return $names;
}

Answer 2

this is emptying your array every time : $names = array();
use this :
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names[] = $row['name'];
}

Answer 3

You are creating a new $names array every row then returning the last one. You need to declare the array outside the while loop. The following should work:
function getUserName($db) {
try {
$sql = 'SELECT members.name FROM members';
$query_an = $db->query($sql);
$count = $query_an->rowCount();
if ($count > 0) {
$names = array();
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names[] = $row['name'];
}
return $names;
}
} catch(PDOException $e) {
die($e->getMessage());
}
}

Answer 4

The problem is you're re-initializing the array on every loop:
See:
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names = array();
$names[] = $row['name'];
}
return $names;
Should be:
$names = array();
while ($row = $query_an->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$names[] = $row['name'];
}
return $names;