mysql fetch assoc VS mysql fetch array

Question

Below are two methods commonly used in most php codes for fetch mysql data .

1. mysql_fetch_array()
2. mysql_fetch_assoc()
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Answer 1

The "size" of the query results don't matter in this case.

mysql_fetch_array() generally produces overhead by returning an associative array plus indexed results.

One should decide on the type of query and the desired results on whether to use mysql_fetch_array() or mysql_fetch_assoc().

If the overhead is "neglectable" and I'm sure the query succeeds and I know there's only a single result, I occasionally do:

$q = mysql_query('SELECT `column1`,`column2` FROM `table` WHERE `id` = 123');
list($column1,$column2) = mysql_fetch_array($q);
mysql_free_result($q);

For iterative proceedings (like a while loop), this just doesn't cut it. When there's no need for "quick-extracting" results (via a list operator) and the result has to be further processed in code, I always use mysql_fetch_assoc()*.

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* When forced to actually use the quite out-dated procedural data retrieval functions of PHP. There are alternatives.