User with limeted records in DB ?

[tomcat_fo]

Im making a thing with my php-website where users can enter MAX 20 items to show.

The thing i want to happen when users enter items:
1. Check if users have used their 20 records limit or no
  2.1 If they have not reached the 20 records limit the record should be inserted
  2.2 If they have reached the 20 record limit, the record is not inserted, but they get a message, telling them they have reached the limit


What im worried about is how the querry looks like that checks how many records have been inserted.

The IF part would probably look like this:

if ($records < 20)
{
insert the record
}
else
{
print("you have reached the limit");
}

How will the counting part look like, where the VAR $records comes from ?


hope someone can help

[obsidian]

assuming you already have the user's id number assigned to an $id variable, you'd just have to do this:
[code]
<?php
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM records WHERE user_id = '$id'");
if (mysql_result($sql, 0) < 20) {
  // they have 19 or fewer, let them insert it
} else {
  // show error. they have 20 already
}
?>
[/code]

hope this helps