Many of the php programming newbies get confused about mysql_fetch_array(), mysql_fetch_row(), mysql_fetch_assoc() and mysql_fetch_object() functions, but all of these functions performs a similar process.
Let us create a table “tb” for clear example with three fields “id”, “username” and “password”
Table: tb
Insert a new row into the table with values 1 for id, tobby for username and tobby78$2 for password
db.php
<?php
$query=mysql_connect("localhost","root","");
mysql_select_db("tobby",$query);
?>
mysql_fetch_row()
Fetch a result row as an numeric array
<html>
<?php
include('db.php');
$query=mysql_query("select * from tb");
$row=mysql_fetch_row($query);
echo $row[0];
echo $row[1];
echo $row[2];
?>
</html>
Result
1 tobby tobby78$2
mysql_fetch_object()
Fetch a result row as an object
<html>
<?php
include('db.php');
$query=mysql_query("select * from tb");
$row=mysql_fetch_object($query);
echo $row->id;
echo $row->username;
echo $row->password;
?>
</html>
Result
1 tobby tobby78$2
mysql_fetch_assoc()
Fetch a result row as an associative array
<html>
<?php
include('db.php');
$query=mysql_query("select * from tb");
$row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
echo $row['id'];
echo $row['username'];
echo $row['password'];
?>
</html>
Result
1 tobby tobby78$2
mysql_fetch_array()
Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array and also it fetches by both associative & numeric array.
<html>
<?php
include('db.php');
$query=mysql_query("select * from tb");
$row=mysql_fetch_array($query);
echo $row['id'];
echo $row['username'];
echo $row['password'];
<span style="color: #993300;">/* here both associative array and numeric array will work. */</span>
echo $row[0];
echo $row[1];
echo $row[2];
?>
</html>
Result
1 tobby tobby78$2