Why does mysql_query() return TRUE with a SELECT statement?

Question

According to the manual of mysql_query() and to everything I know about this function that I used so many times, it can either return a resource or FALSE if the

Answer 1

Let's look at this the other way, When mysql_query() returns FALSE it means that for what ever reason, the attempt to query has failed. Meaning that even before it got to do you're query something went wrong, as such there has been no effect on the database, or that the query was unable to even get to a point where it could see the database.