best way to count records(rows)?

[Anon]

hi guys,
i've always been curious if there is an optimal way to do this.

1st way
$sql='select count(id) as num_rows from items';
$result=mysql_query($sql, $link_id);
$record=fetch_object($result);
$num_rows=$record->num_rows;

2nd way
$sql='select id from items';
$result=mysql_query($sql, $link_id);
$num_rows=myql_num_rows($result);

which is the fastest/best way to do this?

thanx,
-paul
http://xhawk.net

[brandonschnell]

this is what i found out in my limited testing:

http://www.phpbuilder.com/forum/read.php3?num=2&id=121242&thread=121211

[monkey]

Brandon is right, simply because select count(*) returns the count and selecting returns the whole table then has php count it.

[phorm]

I believe that for the first, it should be
$record=mysql_fetch_object($result);

At least on my machine, php balks at fetch_object otherwise:

fatal error: Call to undefined function: fetch_object() in...