PHP/Mysql array_pop missing first value

This construct looks totally crazy to me. I don't understand why it would cut off the first element, but I don't really feel inclined to even spend the time to find out: You need to fix that statement. Using || in this context is never going to give you the result you want.

Can you describe what this is supposed to do?

Why do you need the pop code?

while($rsComment = mysql_fetch_assoc($rsComments)) {
    $Comments[] = $rsComment;
}

Doesn't this do everything you need with the advantage of being much more verbose?

Edit The reason your code doesn't work is when the while evaluates to false to stop the loop, it runs the array_pop and this removes 1 element from the array.

mysql_fetch_assoc returns an associative array that corresponds to the fetched row if there are rows present and it returns false if there are no more rows.

So

while(($Comments[] = mysql_fetch_assoc($rsComments)) || array_pop($Comments));

will look like:

while(true || array_pop($Comments)); 

for the first 4 rows. Now the || is short circuited, the pop does not happen. After this when there are no more rows left, mysql_fetch_assoc returns false which gets pushed in the array and then array_pop gets executed which removes the last added element (false).

So effectively the || array_pop($Comments) removes the final boolean value pushed in the array, ensuring that the array has only the rows returned by mysql_fetch_assoc.

I can't figure how this works at all.

At first I assumed it would fill the array with bool values, but after thinking about it, the loop should never terminate.

It will eventually equate to while(($array[] = array_pop($array)));, and for a non-empty array, this will spin forever:

The following never terminates:

<?php

// Simulate MySQL_fetch_assoc; return false when no more results
function fetch($results) {
    if (count($results))
        return array_pop($results);
    return false;
}

$Comments = array();
$rsComments= array(array(3), array(4), array(5), array(6));

while (($Comments[] = fetch($rsComments) || array_pop($Comments)));

// $Comments = array(true,true,true,true,true,...);

You have to put in a counter; for instance: $counter=3 Then your while statement contains that counter, like this:

while ($count < 3) { (Your count starts at 0, so although you have a total of 4 items, 0 counts as one of them. Your program will only count up to 3 with the array you have.)

I cannot help correct anything else in your code because I am too new to programming myself, but at least that will help you keep from having a never-ending loop.