Looping dilema which one FOR or while or both

[Voodoo Jai]

I want to read a db tables content to find out how many times an entry occurs, if it is above a certain number then I want to stop the reading and continue on with something else. But If once all the vlaues have been read and are not above the set level then I wan to do something else.

 

the condition is : a count value <11.

if value >11 the stop loop and do somthing else.

 

Do I get the number of rows to read and then use a FOR loop to read all the values until a condition is true. But doesnt this loop have to run through all the values and waste time.

 

Or do I use a WHILE loop that checks for a condtion and if not true then continues to loop until a value is true or until all the values are tested.

 

Read a db value

count value = 0

if count >11

  add to the count value

  read another db value

else

  stop reading the db values and

  do something else

end

 

is this the solution or is there a better way.

 

Many thanks

 

VoodooJai

 

[kenrbnsn]

Assuming you're using MySQL, you can get the number of records containing a certain value in one statement and then decide what to do. No need for loops.

 

Ken

[gigas10]

$qry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table01");
$row = mysql_num_rows($qry);

 

gives you the number of rows in a table.

[Voodoo Jai]

Arrrrrrrrrrrr so if I select all the record with the same value and count them if count >11 do something, else do something else.

Yes I am reading from a MySql db.

 

so would it be

 

SELECT COUNT(value) FROM tableName WHERE value = 123abc;

 

"A little further on"

 

VoodooJai

 

Sorry missed previos reply

[discomatt]

Using COUNT(*) is supposed to be slightly faster, from what I've read.

[gigas10]

faster? it doesnt matter until you have over 100 million rows

[Voodoo Jai]

Brilliant thank you all for your help

 

VoodooJai