skipping a WHILE loop in mysql_fetch_*()

I have always retrieved database information using the following general format: <?php

    mysql_connect($host, $user, $password);
    mysql_select_db($database);
    $query = "select * from table";
    $result = mysql_query($query);
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        echo $row["user_id"];
        echo $row["fullname"];
    }
    mysql_free_result($result);

?> But sometimes I am searching for something specific, with a primary key as my WHERE clause. In other words, I will only EVER get one result. In this case, a while loop seems to be overkill, since it will only loop once. Does it seem like a bad idea to just do: $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); echo $row['user_id']; echo $row['fullname']; etc? Or is there a compelling reason to use the loop? the only reason I ask is because I've never seen search query code that -isn't- in a loop of some sort. But it works fine the way I do it, immediately above. Thanks, Erik ---- Erik Price Web Developer Temp Media Lab, H.H. Brown pricee@hhbrown.com