$host="localhost";
$username="sample1";
$password="1234";
$db_name="sampledb";

mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

function example1(array1) {
//is this allowed??
  $array1 = array();
  $ctr = 0;
  $ctr1=1;
  $sql="SELECT names FROM tblnamelist";
  $result=mysql_query($sql);
  $row=mysql_fetch_array($result);
  $count=mysql_num_rows($result);
  //I also want to populate the array1 with all the values that was retrieved in the query then return it as an array
  if($count!=0) {
    while($ctr1<=$count) {
      $array1[$ctr]=$row[$ctr];
    }
  }
}

function get_results()
{
  $array1 = array();

  $sql="SELECT names FROM tblnamelist";
  $result=mysql_query($sql);

  while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
      $array1[] = $row;
  }
  return $array1;
}
$array = get_results();

function example1(&$array1) {
  //is this allowed?? -- yes, but you have to do it by reference see & in the definition
  $array1 = array();

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result){

echo $row['field_name'];
}

$sql="SELECT names FROM tblnamelist";
  $result=mysql_query($sql);
  while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
  echo $row['field_name'];

}

if ($count!=0)
  {
    while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
      array_push($array1,$row['names']);
    }
  }
 print_r($array1);

$result=mysql_query($sql);
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $array1[]=$row;
}

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $array1[$row['myUniqueRowID']]=$row;
}

$array1 = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $array1[] = $row['names'];  // Insert the value of $row['names'] to the end of the array
}

// return your array, or use Jakub's method.
return $array1;

function getNamesArray() {
    $sql="SELECT names FROM tblnamelist";
    $result=mysql_query($sql);

    // this is the result array that this function will return
    $array1 = array();

    // loop while there are rows in the mysql result
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
        // Insert the value of $row['names'] to the end of the array
        $array1[] = $row['names'];
    }
    return $array1;
}

// test the function:
$test = getNamesArray();
var_dump($test);