What is the best practice for handling array structures in PHP when transferring data from a database?

When transferring data from a database to PHP, it is best practice to fetch the data as an associative array using functions like `mysqli_fetch_assoc()` or `PDO::FETCH_ASSOC`. This allows for easier access to the data using keys rather than numerical indices. Additionally, using a loop to iterate over the fetched data and store it in a new array can help in organizing and manipulating the data efficiently. 

// Assuming $stmt is a prepared statement object
$result = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

$data = array();
foreach ($result as $row) {
    $data[] = $row;
}

// Now $data contains the fetched data in an associative array structure

Keywords

PHP array structures database data transfer handling

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