php: iterate recordset - easier way?

i've just changed from ASP to php and i'm a bit confused about the way php is handling recordsets. i'd like to know if there's an easier way to iterate a recordset by creating a php class. he开发者_StackOverflow中文版re's the ASP syntax to show what i mean:

sq = "select * from myData"
set rs = db.execute(sq)
do while not rs.eof
    response.write rs("name")  // output data (response.write = echo)
    rs.movenext
loop

any ideas? thanks

You'd pretty much do the same thing...

$sql = "select * from myData";
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error()); //executes query
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ //will automatically return false when out of records
    echo $row['name'];
}

You're probably looking for a function contains word fetch in it's name. E.g. mysql_fetch_assoc() or $pdo->fetchAll().

Most of database API functions in PHP returns some sort of pointer variable called "resource", which can be passed to the fetch-family function, like this:

$res = mysql_query();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)){
  echo $row['name'];
}

However, some of them (like PDO's fetchAll method) returns but regular PHP array, which you can iterate using as regular foreach operator.