Getting data from MySQL database thats usable for functions

I created a function that is able to print information on screen. However I cannot use this function to store this data in an $variable. I'm also not able to call this into the if comparator (it directly prints it on screen).

Here is an example how i would store the data:

$usertype = getusertype();
or using it in an if statement:
if(getusertype==1){
something}

Here is my function

function getusertype(){

global $con; /* getting the needed data for the query */

$myusername = $_SESSION['myusername']; /* defining the query */

$sql3 = "SELECT usertype FROM person WHERE person_id='$myusername'";

if ($result = mysqli_query($con,$sql3)) {

/* fetch object array */
 while ($row = $result->fetch_row()) {
    printf ("%s  ", $row[0]);
}

/* free result set */
$result->close();

} }

Thank you for looking into it :) (if you do)