What is MYSQLI_ASSOC?

Imagine you have a list of fruit from a database in your hand. PHP allows you to access this data in two different ways, depending on how you set the "switch" in the fetch function.

EXAMPLE

<?php
$server = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$database = "mysqli_database";

$connection = mysqli_connect($server, $username, $password, $database);

// Read the data (including the date for correct structure)
$result = mysqli_query($connection, "SELECT table_id, fruit, vegetable, date FROM mysqli_table");

// Use MYSQLI_ASSOC as the second parameter for an associative index
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
    // Access via column names (fruit, vegetable)
    echo "Fruit: " . $row["fruit"] . " - Vegetable: " . $row["vegetable"] . "<br>";
}

mysqli_free_result($result);
mysqli_close($connection);
?>

RESULT

The result will be displayed here...

Numeric Mode (Default): The computer tells itself: "The first column is 0, the second is 1." To get an apple, we have to write $row[0].
Associative Mode (MYSQLI_ASSOC): The computer uses the column names that we defined ourselves in the database. Instead of a number, we write $row['fruit'].

Why do we almost always use MYSQLI_ASSOC in practice?

Readability: You immediately know what you are outputting, even if you open the code a year from now.
Safety during modifications: If you add a new column to the database, your code won't crash because you are still referring to the same column name.