How to echo columns 1...n from mysql database except the first one in php?

Question

I have a table with par_id and columns (par1-5) 1 up to 5, but I'm trying to have my php function below to echo any number of columns

//-------------------------------------- get about ----------------------------------------------
function getAbout($option){
    $div = array();
    $sql_st = "undefined";

    if($option == "about")
        $sql_st = "SELECT * FROM  `about` where par_id='1'";

    // connect to database
    mysql_connect($_SESSION['dbSever'],$_SESSION['dbUser'],$_SESSION['dbPass']) or die(mysql_error());
    mysql_select_db($_SESSION['tblName']) or die(mysql_error());

    $result = mysql_query($sql_st) or die(mysql_error()."<br/>".$sql_st);
    $num_rows =  mysql_num_rows($result);

    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result) ){     
        // not sure what to do here
    }
    // disconnect
    mysql_close();

    return $div;
}

[**Please, don't use `mysql_*` functions in new code**](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12859942/why-shouldnt-i-use-mysql-functions-in-php). They are no longer maintained [and are officially deprecated](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mysql_deprecation). Use [PDO](http://php.net/pdo) or [MySQLi](http://php.net/mysqli) - [this article](http://php.net/manual/en/mysqlinfo.api.choosing.php) will help you decide which. If you choose PDO, [here is a good tutorial](http://wiki.hashphp.org/PDO_Tutorial_for_MySQL_Developers). — misterManSam, Aug 28 '14 at 13:01

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 28 '14 at 13:02

A really simple one would be to have a flag like so:

$skippedFirstRow = false;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){     
    if(!$skippedFirstRow) {
    //do whatever you want here
    }
    $skippedFirstRow = true;
}

However, keep in mind that this is just a quick hack for what you want and considering your code, but it is not an elegant solution.

Gabor · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-28T13:25:32.513

From your question title I'm assuming you have an ID maybe in your first column and you want to keep that from being printed. You could try something like:

$numberOfColumns = mysql_num_fields($result);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result) ){     
     for ($i = 1; $i < $numberOfColumns; $i++){
         echo $row[$i];
     }
}

The $i iterator in the for loop is initiated with value of 1 because PHP handles (like many languages) arrays as zero-based, which means that the first element is referenced by $row[0] (as in this example) - by starting the loop at one and going for as many elements there are in the array, you're effectively grabbing all elements except for the first one.

How to echo columns 1...n from mysql database except the first one in php?

2 Answers2