[PHP] assign mysql query to a variable first or not

[Andy B]

hi...

is it better to give the mysql query string to a variable instead of directly doing it 
with mysql_query?

i.e.
$query="select * from table";//is this a better way?
$query=mysql_query("select * from table");//or is this way 
//better?
mysql_query("select * from table");//not a good idea i dont think...