checking a user db returns Resource id#2

[Anon]

I am not to sure what this is but I am trying to check if a user already exists in the database before I enter them. My code goes as follows:

<pre>
<?php
function username_check() {
GLOBAL $username;
$user="";
$host="localhost";
$pass="";
$db_name="***";
$connect_db = @mysql_connect($host,$user,$pass);

if (!$connect_db) {
	echo("<SPAN CLASS=\"black_normal\"><B><BR>&nbsp; Could not connect to database.</B></SPAN>");
} else {
	mysql_select_db ($db_name);
	if(!$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username'")) {
		echo("<SPAN CLASS=\"black_normal\"><B><BR>
		&nbsp; User does not exist.
		</B></SPAN>");
		return FALSE;
	} else {
		echo("<SPAN CLASS=\"black_normal\"><B><BR>
		&nbsp; User exists.
		</B></SPAN>");
		return TRUE;
	};
	mysql_close($connect_db); 
};

};

if ($submit) {
username_check();
echo("$username");
};
?>
</pre>
<FORM ACTION="<?php echo ("$PHP_SELF"); ?>" METHOD="post">
Enter Username: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="username">
<INPUT TYPE="Submit" NAME="submit">
</FORM>

This is not how it appears in use but the code is exactly the same....my problem is that the variable $result prints "Resource id#2" ....I need it to either return 1 or 0 if the user doesn't exist...

[jburbage]

As long as your query is successful, it will always return a resource identifier. If the result set is empty, then the resource identifier refers to an empty set.

if your only goal is to see whether the user exists, then just use mysql_num_rows(mysql_query($query));

But since you are obtaining a $result variable I get the impression that you are doing something with the data, so you will want to use a separate line for that:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username'");
if(!mysql_num_rows($result)) {
echo("<SPAN CLASS=\"black_normal\"><BR>
User does not exist.
</SPAN>");
return FALSE;
} else {
echo("<SPAN CLASS=\"black_normal\"><BR>
User exists.
</SPAN>");
return TRUE;
};