pg_exec

I have been wondering this for a while and finally have the chance to ask. What I'm trying to do is select a bunch of names from one table in a postgresql database. The way I'd like to display them is alphabetically and indexed by the first letter. So they look similar to this: A Alexandria, Mark Angel, Chris B Boy, John C .... I know a couple ways to do it, but every way involves multiple queries. What I'm wondering is when I issue a select statement to the database via pg_exec(), is the result loaded into memory then, or when each successive pg_fetch_array() is called? I mean, it seems like if each pg_fetch_array were making a call to the database, that would be an unnecassary overhead on a list that has a lot of names. But however, if the entire result set is in the webserver's memory, then I don't really have a problem with doing multiple loops through the data. Hopefully I've described my problem adequately. If any one can help, or has a better idea, please let me know. Thank You. dime