slow query

[willwein]

hi,

i have one row in a database that i use as a counter:
id - counter
1 - 3
when the script loads it reads counter:
select counter from table_count where id=1
then it uses while($myrows = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
$counter = $myrows[0];
}
then the script uses the value in $counter..
at the end I increment it:

UPDATE table_count SET counter = ".($counter+1)." where id = 1

mysql_close();

these two are simple queries...
but they noticeably slow down the script..
what am I doing wrong?

[tomhath]

If you have multiple page hits at the same time there could be contention for either the table or connections to the database. You're also going to get inaccurate counts because two processes could be selecting/updating concurrently.

Try updating first, then select the row and close the connection:

update table_count set counter = counter + 1