Generic MySQL Select All Function - php

Question

I write a lot of SELECT * FROM... kind of queries in my web sites. I'd like to write a function that looks after this for me so I can call on it more quickly, without using more advanced techniques like PDO and OOP. Im just confused on how I would call the data I retrieve from the database, particularly when looping through the array's results.
I'd love something like this:
function selectAll($tableName, $limitAmount) {
global $dbConnection;
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tableName ORDER BY id LIMIT $limitAmount");
$row_result = mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
return $row_result;
}
Say it was a bunch of news posts. Id like to loop through the results in one of the typical ways:
// CALL THE FUNCTION
selectAll('news_table', '10');
// SOMEHOW LOOP THROUGH RESULTS??
do {
echo "<h2>".$row_result['title']."</h2>";
} while ($row_result = mysql_fetch_assoc($query));
Obviously this isn't how I loop through the bespoke results of a function. Im not even sure if my function is correct.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
EDIT: Forgot to return a result inside the function and call the actual function. My bad. Updated now.

Answer 1

There is no point in having such a function called like yours.
Just make it like this
function fetchAll($query) {
$res = mysql_query($query) or trigger_error("db: ".mysql_error()." in ".$query);
$a = array();
if ($res) {
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)) $a[]=$row;
}
return $a;
}
and use it with whatever query:
$data = fetchAll("SELECT * FROM news_table ORDER BY id LIMIT 10");
foreach ($data as $row) {
echo $row['title'];
}
An SQL query being a powerful program itself. Do not reduce it's power to silly selects.
Use SQL to represent data processing logic and this helper function to avoid repetitions.