Checking rows in database not working

[Rifts]

Hey I'm trying to check a row in my database to see if its empty but this isnt working

$usercheck = mysql_query("SELECT pet FROM users where name='$user'");
$returned_rows = mysql_num_rows($usercheck);
if ($returned_rows == 0){

// do stuff if no pet

}else{

    echo 'There was ' . $returned_rows . ' records found.';

}

 

The problem is its not checking the row pet its just checking to see if anything exists

 

my database has

 

id    name        pet

1    joe        <empty>

 

its just seeing joe and echoing "there was 1 record found" instead of seeing that the row pet is empty.

 

thanks for the help

[Stooney]

You need to use strlen() on the result. 

 

$data=mysql_fetch_assoc($usercheck);

if(strlen($data['pet'])==0){
    //Pet field is empty
} else{
    //Pet field not empty
     echo 'There was ' . $returned_rows . ' records found.';
}

[Rifts]

that worked perfectly

 

thanks