Can a recordset be opened in PHP using one call?

Why is it necessary using 2 function开发者_运维问答s in PHP for opening a recordset? like:

$rc = mysql_query($sq, $db);
$rs = mysql_fetch_array($rc);

Can a recordset be handled also directly without mysql_fetch_array? What is the disadvantage?

mysql_query returns a resource and not data.

You must fetch each row by some way mysql_fetch_array can help you to move between the results (between pointers)

The way an SQL query is made, at least at the level of the C library that's used by PHP as an interface between PHP and the MySQL database, goes in two steps :

• Execute the query
• Fetch the results

The msql_* functions are more or less based on that C-library (libmysql, before PHP 5.3 and its mysqlnd), and, so, work the same way.
Basically, the mysql_* functions of PHP are nothing more than wrappers arround the functions exposed by libmysql.

For more informations about the C library in question, see :

• MySQL C API
• C API Function Overview

No, because the first is used for database interrogation and the second is used for iteration of the array.