Fetching MySQL Rows in PHP

The historical mysql_fetch_row() function returned one result row as a numeric array. The equivalent pattern remains available in both PDO and MySQLi.

Historical mysql_fetch_row()

<?php
// Historical only: removed from PHP 7+
$query = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM student');
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($query)) {
    echo $row[0] . ', ' . $row[1];
}
?>

PDO numeric rows

<?php
$stmt = $dbo->query(
    'SELECT id, name, class, mark FROM student ORDER BY id'
);

while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM)) {
    echo $row[0] . ', ' . $row[1] . ', ' . $row[2] . ', ' . $row[3] . '<br>';
}
?>

Associative rows are usually clearer

<?php
$stmt = $dbo->query(
    'SELECT id, name, class, mark FROM student ORDER BY id'
);

foreach ($stmt as $row) {
    echo htmlspecialchars($row['name'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
    echo ' - ' . (int) $row['mark'] . '<br>';
}
?>

MySQLi fetch_row()

<?php
$result = $connection->query(
    'SELECT id, name, class, mark FROM student ORDER BY id'
);
while ($row = $result->fetch_row()) {
    echo $row[0] . ' - ' . $row[1] . '<br>';
}
?>

Modern sample table

CREATE TABLE student (
    id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    class VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    mark TINYINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
) ENGINE=InnoDB
  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

See data lengths in a fetched row, query error handling, and the student dataset.

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Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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