Script slowing down program

[iceraider]

If researched my script to see whats taking my pages so long to load. I found the part

         $results = mysql_query("SELECT link FROM clicked WHERE user='$user' AND link='$active[0]'",$db);
         $tim = mysql_fetch_row($results);

 if($tim) {
        $a = "<p><font color=\"FF0000\">\$.</font> $a<a href=\"links.php?ad=$active[0]&id=$user\" target=_blank>$active[1]</a> $b</p>";
     } else {
        $a = "<p><font color=\"006600\">\$.</font> $a<a href=\"links.php?ad=$active[0]&id=$user\" target=_blank>$active[1]</a> $b</p>";
     }

That code you can find in the whole code below.

Im just wondering why that section takes so LONG!

function active($right, $user) {
 global $do;
 $t = array();
 global $db;
 $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links WHERE status='active' ORDER BY id DESC",$db);
 if($result) {
   while ($active = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
     if($active[11] == 2) {
	$money = "1/2";
     } elseif($active[11] == 3) {
	$money = "1/4";
     } else {
	$money = "1";
     }

 $a = '';
 $b = '';

 if($active[6] == "yes") {
$a = "<span class=\"highlighted\">";
$b = "</span>";
 }
 if($active[4] == "yes") {
$a = "$a" . "<b>";
$b = "</b>" . "$b";
 }
 if($active[5] == "yes") {
$a = "$a". "<i>";
$b = "</i>" . "$b";
 }
 if($right && $do != "logout") {
$c = "
                    <table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"4\" bgcolor=\"#000000\">
                      <tr>
                        <td bgcolor=\"#009933\" align=\"center\" class=\"light\"><b>Active Key</b></td>
                      </tr>
                      <tr>
                        <td bgcolor=\"#EEEEEE\" class=\"text\"><font color=\"006600\"><b>\$:</b></font> 
                          New link, get paid!<font color=\"FF0000\"><br>
                          \$:</font> You already been paid for that link</td>
                      </tr>
                    </table>
     ";
     $results = mysql_query("SELECT link FROM clicked WHERE user='$user' AND link='$active[0]'",$db);
     $tim = mysql_fetch_row($results);

 if($tim) {
        $a = "<p><font color=\"FF0000\">\$.</font> $a<a href=\"links.php?ad=$active[0]&id=$user\" target=_blank>$active[1]</a> $b</p>";
     } else {
        $a = "<p><font color=\"006600\">\$.</font> $a<a href=\"links.php?ad=$active[0]&id=$user\" target=_blank>$active[1]</a> $b</p>";
     }
 } else {
     $a = "<p><font color=\"336699\">\$.</font> $a<a href=\"links.php?ad=$active[0]\" target=_blank>$active[1]</a> $b</p>";
 }
 array_push($t, $a);
   }
     $t = implode('', $t); 
     $aasg = "(<a href=\"links_page.php\">More Links</a>)<br>";

 return("$t<p align=\"center\">$aasg(<a href=\"http://webewebin.com/advertise.php\">Advertise</a>)</p>$c");
 } else {
   $b = "
			No current active links available.<br>
                        <br>
                        <b>Advertisers</b>, you can add your link here for only 
                        \$5.00, and get 1000 unique members to your site.
                        <p class=\"bigtext\" align=\"center\">
				( <a href=\"advertise.php\">Advertise</a> )
			</p>
	";
    return("$b");
 }

}

[KillerCheeto]

It would seem this query:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links WHERE status='active' ORDER BY id DESC",$db);

Would slow down your script... since it grabs ALL of the data that is 'active' and sorts it out...

But also... if you're right about the designated query being the culprit... how many records are in there? It's a 'clicked' table... meaning that it's filled with records on EVERY SINGLE CLICK? If this is the case, then there isn't much you can do but LIMIT it somehow... but I guess you can't do that .

If you are just interested in returning how many results you have returned... you can just use the count() function in MySQL too...