Question: In my database table there is a column named 'marks' . it contains values like 50,55,67,88,...
Now I need to read this values one by one like - first 50, then 55 and so on. How is it possible using php ? 

```
include("db_connect.php"); 
   $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM  students   ",$con);
   while($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
   $mark1=$rows['marks'];//what will do here
   $mark2=$rows['marks']; //should get value 55 and so on
}

```

Answer: 
If your values are comma separated then explode the field. 

<http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php>

```
include("db_connect.php"); 
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM  students", $con);

while($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
   $mark=explode(',', $rows['marks']);//what will do here
   foreach($mark as $out) {
      echo $out;
   }
}

```
**N.B.** `explode()` function breaks the string into array, it accepts three arguments, first one is the delimiter that specifies where to break the string, second one is the string that needs splitting, and third one is not mandatory but it tells how many array to return.

```
$str_to_exploade = 'This,string,needs,some,exploiting';
$explode_string = explode(',', $str_to_exploade);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($explode_string);
echo $explode_string[0].'<br/>';
echo $explode_string[1];

```

More about explode() go to : <http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php>