How do I write a 0 count if a row doesn't exist?

[Jeffro]

I'm printing some mysql results to a table and sometimes I have rows with no results so they never get counted...  which results in an ugly looking parenthesis on my page with nothing it  ().  For these times, I'd like to print a zero. 

 

How can I rewrite the following to achieve this? 

 

if($row['mycount'] does not exist) {
$row['mycount'] = '0';
}

[spiderwell]

when you say $row['mycount'] does not exist do you mean its value is NULL?

[DavidAM]

if (empty($row['mycount'])) {
  $row['mycount'] = '0';
}

Should do the trick. If the element does not exist in the array, or if it is false, null, or zero; empty() will be true.

 

You could also do it using the ternary operator in the output:

 

echo 'The count is: ' . (empty($row['mycount']) ? '0' : $row['mycount']);

[Jeffro]

Hmmm... seems like that should have worked, but it didn't seem to do anything.  When the row doesn't exist, it still won't assign a zero. 

 

Here's my full code:

 

$query = "SELECT SUBSTR(url,8,INSTR(url,'.')- as cityname, COUNT(*) as citycount FROM cities GROUP BY SUBSTR(url,8,INSTR(url,'.')-";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
$data = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$data[$row['cityname']] = $row['citycount'];
}

 

Later on, I'm calling the city names in my hyperlinks, like so:

<a href="/city/ausin/">Austin</a> (<?php echo $data['austin']; ?>)<br>
<a href="/city/dallas/">Dallas</a> (<?php echo $data['dallas']; ?>)<br>
<a href="/city/miami/">Miami</a> (<?php echo $data['miami']; ?>)<br>

 

This produces a result set such as: 

Austin (9)

Dallas (4)

Miami ()  <-- where () should read (0)

[The Little Guy]

Use type casting:

 

$count = 0;
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
   $data[$row['cityname']] = (int)$row['citycount'];
}