using results more than once

[dustsmoke]

I am new to php. Maybe somebody can explain a little about how php works with result sets. I would like to use the same results twice.

<select name="prepaired_by">
<? while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($results)) { ?>
  <option value="<?= $row["id"] ?>"><?= $row["employee_name"] ?>
<? } ?>
</select>

<select name="recieved_by">
<? while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($results)) { ?>
  <option value="<?= $row["id"] ?>"><?= $row["employee_name"] ?>
<? } ?>
</select>

But of course the second one does not fill.

[eoghain]

When you use [man]mysql_fetch_array/man an internal pointer to the result set is moved forward, so if you only have a single result set the second call. If you want your program to function the way it's writting you will need to us the [man]mysql_data_seek/man function to reset the pointer to 0 and start at the beginning of the list again.

However most people just change the way they write there code:

<?php
$prepaired_by = "<select name=\"prepaired_by\">";
$recieved_by = "<select name=\"recieved_by\">";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($results))
{
   $prepaired_by .= "<option value=\""
                 .  $row["id"] . "=\">" 
                 .  $row["employee_name"];
   $recieved_by .= "<option value=\"" 
                .  $row["id"] . "=\">" 
                .  $row["employee_name"];
}
$prepaired_by .= "</select>";
$recieved_by .= "</select>";

echo $prepaired_by;
echo $recieved_by;
?>

[dustsmoke]

thanks eoghain!!

[Roger_Ramjet]

MySQL also uses query cache like most modern db engines. So if you want to reuse the same result set from script to script rather then within the same script, the db will have it in the cache untill the query or the underlying tables change. Many people do not realise this and worry about the overhead of sending the same query to the db.