SOLVED: counting rows in someone else's code

[bad_gui]

I'm modifying an open source project and trying to get a listing of the total number

of entries in a mysql DB.

 

    $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM library";
    $result = @mysql_query ($query);
    $rows = @mysql_fetch_row ($result);
    $articles = $rows[0];
    $where = "overall";

    @mysql_close($link);

print "<BR><BR>$articles articles $where<BR><BR>";

 

I don't understand why mysql_fetch_row is used since it gives the next available number as a scalar

not an array.  I tried simply setting $articles = @mysql_query ($query);  but no value is printed.  I get the

correct result if I paste the command  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM library into phpmyadmin's sql window.

 

Postscript.  When I removed the error suppression "@" the verbose errors revealed that no DB connection

was established and what was missing was the following code to connect to the DB before executing the

query

 

    $link = @mysql_connect($database_host, $database_user, $database_password);
    @mysql_select_db ($database_name);

 

However I still don't understand why it doesn't just use the result from SELECT COUNT(*) FROM library??

[pocobueno1388]

Try this:

 

<?php

    $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as num FROM library";
    $result = @mysql_query ($query);
    $rows = @mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
    $articles = $rows['num'];
    $where = "overall";

    @mysql_close($link);

print "<BR><BR>$articles articles $where<BR><BR>";

?>

[bad_gui]

Thanks for the code but as a newbie I still don't understand why both versions

use an associative array for a scalar result, namely the total number of records.

 

Here is my limited understanding:

 

    $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM library";

    $result = @mysql_query ($query);

 

The code above will have the number of records in the string $result

 

 

    $rows = @mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

    $articles = $rows['num'];

 

Now the string $rows will be an array which contains the number of entries

and $articles is set to the associative array element 'num'

 

This code works but why have the extra complexity- or is there something I

am missing?

 

 

 

[pocobueno1388]

$query = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM library";

    $result = @mysql_query ($query);

 

The code above will have the number of records in the string $result

 

No, $result wouldn't hold the number of records.

 

This line

$rows = @mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

actually extracts the data from the result and puts it into an array.

 

The only reason I had to do that is because I aliased the number of records in the query. You can use mysql_num_rows() instead if you prefer.