Adding up the RESULT

i was wondering about a PHP function like mysql_fetch_array but that would select all the ROW values of one FIELD rather the "mysql_fetch_array" selecting all FIELDS of ONE row. does PHP have that function ? basically y do i need that ? because i am selecting a number of rows from my table from 1 to 35000 at a time i need the SUM of one field based on the ROWS selected.... but... no GROUP BY because the table has 2 fields: index, and fieldname so i was looking to take my $result in a function that i can then apply array_sum( ) to. also the processing time to WHILE ( ) through the results is unacceptable at 30000 results. i have also posted this question in mailing.database.mysql but the traffic in that group has been too light... and posted to alt.php.sql but i will take any suggestions from any group on this one... so please let me know if n e one has a solution or knows of a function. Thanks Joel Colombo