How to print the value of a single cell using MySQL and PHP? -

this returns blank page:

<?php  $con=mysqli_connect("xxx.x.xx.x","user","password","db");  // check connection if (mysqli_connect_errno())   {   echo "failed connect mysql: " . mysqli_connect_error();   }  $result = mysqli_query($con,"select column table id=1");  print $result;  mysqli_close($con); ?> 

and returns data:

<?php  $con=mysqli_connect("xxx.x.xx.x","user","password","db");  // check connection if (mysqli_connect_errno())   {   echo "failed connect mysql: " . mysqli_connect_error();   }  $result = mysqli_query($con,"select * table");  while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))   {   echo $row['column_1'] . " " . $row['column_2'];   echo "<br>";   }  mysqli_close($con); ?> 

what wrong first block of code prevents returning data?

http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.query.php

tells me mysqli_query returns mysqli_query object. not primitive value string or int.

the exact line says is:

returns false on failure. successful select, show, describe or explain queries mysqli_query() return mysqli_result object. other successful queries mysqli_query() return true.

hence first block not work because first block assumes value in column automatically returned.

in fact, if used same select column table id=1, still have use while loop extract values because still mysqli_result object getting back.

by while loop mean this:

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {   echo $row['column_1'];   echo "<br>"; } 

i hope answers question.