There used to be an Evo extra called loopDbChunk that is quite handy. It lets you use a template chunk for each record in a similar way to Ditto, with methods to hook in extra functions of your own to handle selected fields.
MODX also has a built-in way to present database information as HTML tables, using the DataGrid widget in a template variable. The TV uses the @SELECT binding to run a query on the database.
:) KP