Single item return from mysql

zevious

I have cases where I am expect 1 item to be returned from an mysql query. Using code like this:
$result=mysql_db_query("WP","select b_total from ".$co."_activity where account='".$account."' && month=mid(date_sub('".$mon."', INTERVAL ".$imonths." MONTH),6,2) && year=left(date_sub('".$mon."', INTERVAL ".$imonths." MONTH),4) limit 1");
while($r = mysql_fetch_array($result)) $int_total=$r["b_total"];

can I do something like $int_total=mysql_db_query("blah blah"); ??

sepodati

You still have get a result set first, but then you can use mysql_result() to get the one value.

$result = mysql_query(...);
$int_total = mysql_result($result,0);

or...you could actually do it all on one line, but you're doing the same thing...

$int_total = mysql_result(mysql_query(...),0);

---John Holmes...

zevious

Thanks! That works.

kparker

For an alternative method, use list():

   list($int_total) = mysql_fetch_row($result);

This method is not limited to a single result column, e.g.:

   $qry = "select a, b, c, from ...";
   
   ...
   
   list($a,$b,$c) = mysql_fetch_row($result);

As this example suggests, however, the one great downside is that you must match the sequence of the columns in your SELECT statement with the sequence of variables in the list(), otherwise values aren't the variables you expect. IMO it's probably a good idea to restrict this usage to where you have just a few columns in the query.