Mysqli fetch_assoc vs fetch_array

Question

When I'm returning one row from a table, to gather the results I usually use e.g.:

$info = $result->fetch_assoc();  

What is the difference between that and:

$info = $result->fetch_array(); 

Is there a reason to use one over the other when returning only one row, or is it just personal preference?

Answer 1

It's all about performance

fetch_array() returns one array with both numeric keys, and associative strings (column names), so here you can either use $row['column_name'] or $row[0]

Where as fetch_assoc() will return string indexed key array and no numeric array so you won't have an option here of using numeric keys like $row[0].

So the latter one is better in performance compared to fetch_array() and obviously using named indexes is far better compared to numeric indexes.

Answer 2

fetch_array returns value with indexing. But Fetch_assoc just returns the the value.

for example fetch_array returns

[0] => 11 [id] => 11 [1] => 2014-12-29 [date] => 2014-12-29 

here array location 0 contains 11 also this location name is 'id'.

same things fetch_assoc will returns

[id] => 11 [date] => 2014-12-29 

means just returns the value.