grabbing first row in a mysql query only

To return only one row use LIMIT 1:

SELECT *
FROM tbl_foo
WHERE name = 'sarmen'
LIMIT 1

It doesn’t make sense to say ‘first row’ or ‘last row’ unless you have an ORDER BY clause. Assuming you add an ORDER BY clause then you can use LIMIT in the following ways:

• To get the first row use LIMIT 1.
• To get the 2nd row you can use limit with an offset: LIMIT 1, 1.
• To get the last row invert the order (change ASC to DESC or vice versa) then use LIMIT 1.