Iterating from mysql into an array

[nickp]

function get_arr($sql){  

  $i = 0;
  $result = mysql_query($sql);
  while ($arr[$i] = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ $i++; };
  array_slice ($arr, 0, -1);
  mysql_free_result($result);
  return $arr;
}

If I ran that without the array_slice I get a blank entry into the array as it executes the mysql_fetch before kicking out of the while loop. As yet I haven't run into any problems with losing the last entry from a query, but I could see it might be a problem. Are there any situations where I could lose a valid entry from my query?

If so should I be putting the result of the query into a variable, checking its not empty, then putting it into my array something like:

function get_arr($sql){
  $i = 0;
  $result = mysql_query($sql);
  while ($val = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ 
  if ($val != ""){
    arr[$i] = $val;
  };
  $i++;
  };
  mysql_free_result($result);
  return $arr;
}

Just checking as the first is shorter and quicker and I'll probably reuse the function in other projects and wanted to have it perfect.

[laserlight]

Perhaps try:

function get_arr($sql) {
	$result = mysql_query($sql)
		OR return false;
	$arr = array();
	while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
		$arr[] = $row;
	return $arr;
}