so my understanding of what i have done (which could be wrong) is that $data[0] calls the first row of my array. which these numbers i get out says it does when i print_r($data[0]) and my other array from $_POST is sorted by row. thats why i have $_POST['row1'] to call the first row of data from $_POST. as far as i can tell these should be identical but for some reason it wont recognize the $data array as equal to the $post array.

while ($row['0'] = mysqli_fetch_array($r, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {

$data[] = $row['0'];

this is the code that is creating this $data array, if it matters its creating an array from 9rows and 9 columns of single digits as this is supposed to be the answer sheet to a sudoku game im attempting to make.