Working with "resources" - search/extract

[comport9]

While working on sorting through my database I've discovered something called "resources". My resource in this case is all the rows & columns of my particular table.

Now, I know I can use mysql_fetch_array() in a while statement to loop through it, but is there a faster way of simply reaching in in pulling out the data I want rather than looping through it?

For instance, if I know the 'id' of the row I want, and the name of the column I want, can I grab the data associated with them directly?

Also, if anyone has a good place that gives more info on resources it would be appreciated. Thansk!

Edit: did some more research, doesn't seem like there's a way to do it. So I guess my next question would be, is it faster to loop over the existing resource or do another, targeted, query? If it depends on how many rows (how much data) what would the breaking point be?