To improve the performance and usability, SQLite extension implements sqlite_fetch_single(), which can be used to retrieve single column data in a form of a string. 

<?php
function check_if_exists($cc)
{
    $result = sqlite_unbuffered_query(
        "SELECT id FROM country_data WHERE cc_code_2='{$cc}'", 
        sqlite_r
    );

    return sqlite_fetch_single($result);
}
?>