Codeigniter: foreach method or result array?? [Models +View]

Question

I am currently following tutorials on viewing data from the database using the Framework Codeigniter. There are various ways in which I've learnt. Is there is a more realiable way- either displaying as an array or using 'foreach' in the view file? Any opinions would be helpful.

This is my code using the two methods:

Method 1 Model:

function getArticle(){
    $this->db->select('*');
    $this->db->from('test');
    $this->db->where('author','David');
    $this->db->order_by('id', 'DESC');
    $query=$this->db->get();

    if($query->num_rows() > 0) {
        foreach ($query->result() as $row) {
            $data[] = $row;
        }
        return $data;
    }$query->free_result();
}

}

Method 1 View file:

 <?php foreach($article as $row){ ?>
        <h3><?php echo $row->title;  ?></h3>
        <p><?php echo $row->content;  ?></p>
        <p><?php echo $row->author;  ?></p>
        <p><?php echo $row->date; ?></p>
<?php } ?>

Method 2 Model: class News_model extends CI_Model {

function getArticle(){
    $this->db->select('*');
    $this->db->from('test');
    $this->db->where('author', 'David');
    $this->db->order_by('id', 'DESC');
    $query=$this->db->get();

    if ($query->num_rows()>0) { 
        return $query->row_array();
    }
    $query->free_result();
}

Method 2 View file:

    <?php echo '<h3>' .$article['title'].'</h3>' ?>
    <?php echo '<p>' .$article['content']. '</p>' ?>
    <?php echo '<p>' .$article['author']. '</p>' ?>
    <?php echo '<p>'. $article['date']. '</p>' ?>

Answer 1

I would do it like that:

Model

function getArticle() {
    $this->db->select('*');
    $this->db->from('test');
    $this->db->where('author','David');
    $this->db->order_by('id', 'DESC');
    return $this->db->get()->result();
}

}

Controller

function get_tests() {
    $data = array(
        'tests' => $this->mymodel->getArticle()
    }
    $this->load->view('myview', $data);
}

View

<table>
    <?php foreach($tests as $test) { ?>
    <tr>
        <td><?php echo $test->title;?></td>
        <td><?php echo $test->content;?></td>
        <td><?php echo $test->author;?></td>
        <td><?php echo $test->date;?></td>
    </tr>
</table>

If you wish to work with arrays rather than objects, in your model change line

return $this->db->get()->result();

to

return $this->db->get()->result_array();

and in views echo like

<td><?php echo $test['title'];?></td>

P.S.

In your code you use $query->free_result(); but it doesn't even run because when you use keyword return everything after that is not even parsed. It's not necessary to free results anyway.

P.S.2.

You use if($query->num_rows() > 0) { but don't have the else part, it means that it's not necessary too. If you'll return no lines to your foreach statement in the view, you won't get any errors.