Is it possible to select no columns?

[DWilliams]

I just want to check if a row exists, I don't need to actually pull down any data.

 

Right now I'm doing it like this:

SELECT id FROM dbase WHERE id=$id

 

After running that query I use mysql_num_rows to make sure it returned exactly one row, in which case I know the ID the user passed is valid. This isn't a big issue but for the sake of code readability I'd like to do something like this instead:

 

SELECT NOTHING FROM dbase WHERE id=$id

 

Is something like that possible?

[shlumph]

Not to my knowledge, I usually do something like this to check if a row exists:

SELECT COUNT(id) FROM table WHERE id = 2

[Pikachu2000]

SELECT COUNT(`field`) is much more efficient than mysql_num_rows(), too.

[awjudd]

SELECT 1 FROM table WHERE id = 2

 

That should work ... it just sets an arbitrary value that it will automatically grab

 

~juddster