Check for an existing entry in mySQL

[Anon]

I started to study mySQL couple of days ago and now I have came across with a problem.

I have made a basic hit counter which uses following kind of table structure:
'name of the counter', 'hist', 'count started'

Now I would like add a function which would automatically create a new row if requested one doesn't exist. I tried to search an answer for this but haven't found. Is there any possibilities to check if the requested row (name of the counter) doesn't exist?

[Anon]

You could always SELECT COUNT(*) it and see if it's 0 or not.