Select one row at a time from a query with multiple rows?

Question

I have a query that selects 3 rows; but I only want to display the one row at a time, use the data from that row, then move to the next row, then repeat. How would this be accomplished? Table has 4 items in it.

PHP:

<?php
$server = "secret";
$user = "secret";
$pass = "secret";
$db = "secret";

$con=mysqli_connect($server,$user,$pass,$db);

if (mysqli_connect_errno($con))
   {
       echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
   }

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM news ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 3';

mysqli_select_db($con, $db);
$query = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
$number = 1;
while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query)) { 
    $id = $result['id'];
    $title = $result['title'];
    $news_date = $result['news_date'];
    $post = $result['post'];
}

mysqli_close($con);
?> 

Attempt to display:

        <div name='title'><?php echo $title; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date; ?></div>
        <p>News <?php echo $number; ?></p>
        <p><?php echo $post; ?></p>
        <?php   
           $number++;
        ?>

Output of attempt:

Test
 || 
7/14/13

News 1

Testing to see if this will work lalalalalla

NOTE: Tried to repeat the attempt to see if it would work, but it displayed same as output but with a second one that was a duplicate except said News 2

Desired output look:

Newest Title | Newest Date
Newest news. Etc. Insert Big Paragraph of news here etc etc.

2nd Newest Title | 2nd Newest Date
2nd Newest news. Etc. Insert Big Paragraph of news here etc etc.

3rd Newest Title | 3rd Newest Date
3rd Newest news. Etc. Insert Big Paragraph of news here etc etc.

Answer 1

The problem is that you are overwriting your variables with each while() loop -

while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query)) { 
    $id = $result['id'];
    $title = $result['title'];
    $news_date = $result['news_date'];
    $post = $result['post'];
}

so when you try to echo $id , $title , $news_date , and $post , you will only get the last row data

you either need to add your html in the while loop -

while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query)) { 
    $id = $result['id'];
    $title = $result['title'];
    $news_date = $result['news_date'];
    $post = $result['post'];
    ?>

   <div name='title'><?php echo $title; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date; ?></div>
    <p>News <?php echo $number; ?></p>
    <p><?php echo $post; ?></p>
    <?php   
       $number++;
}

or save them to an array

$id = array();
$title = array();
$news_date = array();
$post = array();

while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query)) { 
    $id[] = $result['id'];
    $title[] = $result['title'];
    $news_date[] = $result['news_date'];
    $post[] = $result['post'];
}

and then access the array in your display

    <div name='title'><?php echo $title[$number-1]; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date[$number-1]; ?></div>
    <p>News <?php echo $number; ?></p>
    <p><?php echo $post[$number-1]; ?></p>
    <?php   
       $number++;
    ?>

I used [$number-1] as I assume $number is starting at 1 , and arrays are 0 based

---

edit here are ways to echo your html. It would be beneficial to visit the php documentation, as all of this is there. In these I set $number back to 0 , but you can change it back to 1 , and just change each of the $number -> $number-1 , and the $number+1 -> $number

using a for loop - http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.for.php

<?php
for($number=0;$number<count($title);$number++){
?>
    <div name='title'><?php echo $title[$number]; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date[$number]; ?></div>
    <p>News <?php echo $number+1; ?></p>
    <p><?php echo $post[$number]; ?></p>
<?php   
}
?>

using a foreach loop - http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php

<?php
foreach($title as $number => $value{
?>
    <div name='title'><?php echo $title[$number]; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date[$number]; ?></div>
    <p>News <?php echo $number+1; ?></p>
    <p><?php echo $post[$number]; ?></p>
<?php   
}
?>

using a while loop - http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.while.php

<?php
$number = 0;
while($number<count($title){
?>
    <div name='title'><?php echo $title[$number]; ?></div> || <div name='news_date'><?php echo $news_date[$number]; ?></div>
    <p>News <?php echo $number+1; ?></p>
    <p><?php echo $post[$number]; ?></p>
<?php   
    $number++;
}
?>

each of the above was done by closing out of php, and writing the html, and then opening php again. You could also just stay in php, and echo the html - http://php.net/manual/en/function.echo.php

<?php
for($number=0;$number<count($title);$number++){
    echo "<div name='title'>".$title[$number]."</div> || <div name='news_date'>".$news_date[$number]."</div>";
    echo "<p>News ".($number+1)."</p>";
    echo "<p>".$post[$number]."</p>";
     }
    ?>