Counting SQL Rows using PHP

Anon

Hey there,

Id like to make a simple PHP script which will count the number of rows in my DB and then will return the value using echo. Ive read the php manual but I dont understand it (I dont want to learn the language, just want to figure this out then im done with php for now). Any help would be great thanks

flipis

Ok, do the following:

First, stablish the connection to the database (I will asssume it is MySQL)

$connection=mysql_connect("server_name","user","password");
mysql_select_db("database_name");

Now, perform a query to select ALL of the records from your table, like this:

$query=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tablename");
$rows=mysql_num_rows($query);
echo $rows;

And that's it, more or less. mysql_num_rows function returns the number of rows from a SELECT query.

Hope it helps

fLIPIS

Anon

its just SQL not mysql, will the code differ much? thanks

flipis

Actually, yes. mysql_num_rows works only for MySQL databases. Try odbc_* functions to cammunicate with your database, case, if it\'s not MySQL or PostgresSQL.

Now, if what you want is just the SQL query, it goes like this:

SELECT COUNT(field) AS maxrows FROM table

Then, you rescue the value of maxrows and there you got the number of rows FOR A WHOLE TABLE. If you want to, use criteria to narrow your search, like

SELECT COUNT(field) AS maxrows FROM table WHERE field2 = \'whatever_you_want_it_to_be\'

Hope it helps

fLIPIS

Anon

Cool, ill have a fiddle with that command when I get home tonight. Ill let you know how I got on!