[djbaxter]

Answering my own question, from https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=75207:

Return Values

For SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE or EXPLAIN statements, mysql_query() returns a resource on success, and FALSE on error.

For other type of SQL statements, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, etc, mysql_query() returns TRUE on success and FALSE on error.

- function query_first

Usage within vBulletin: $DB_site->query_first();

This function is a great one for saving time while coding. What is dose is query the database with $DB_site->query():, it then runs the results through $DB_site->fetch_array and returns the array based on the data in the first row retrieved by the query. It also runs $DB_site->free_result(); to save some memory.

Basically it saves you from having to write this all the time:

$query = $DB_site->query($sqltext); 
$array = $DB_site->fetch_array($query); 
$DB_site->free_result($query);

If simply becomes

$array = $DB_site->query_first($sqltext);