MySQL resultset as an associative array

To save time and resources, when a php application is going to require the same resultset often, the resultset can be saved in a session as an associative array. Then when required in the script the saved session data can be referenced instead of querying the database again.

To return a resultset as an array named $ac_arr requires the following mysql...

$result=mysql_query("SELECT name,startdate,enddate FROM accounts") or die(mysql_error());

while(($ac_arr[] = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) || array_pop($ac_arr));

The array_pop() function simply removes the extra element that would otherwise be appended to the array.

This can then be stored in a session variable and later referenced without re-querying the database...


$_SESSION['ac_array']=$ac_arr;

To list the keys and values of elements in the array

<?php
$acs=$_SESSION['ac_array'];
foreach($acs as $keys=>$values)
{
foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
echo $keys." : ".$key.":".$value."<br />";
}
}
?>

The above will display a list like this
0 : name : AC1
0 : startdate : 2011-08-16
0 : enddate : 2011-12-16
1 : name : AC2
1 : startdate : 2014-07-25
1 : enddate : 2024-07-25
2 : name : AC3
2 : startdate : 2012-05-10
2 : enddate : 2022-05-10

so you can reference any element in the array by calling
$acs[0][name] (will return AC1)
$acs[2][startdate] (will return 2012-05-10)