Problem with SQL COUNT()

[gte806e]

I'm trying to determine the number of items in a table by doing the following.

$numItems = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `$catagory`");

I'm expecting a number to be returned from the query but for some reason the value thats returned when I pring $numItems is

Resource id #4

Catagory is defined

Any suggestions?

Jesse

[sissy]

$query = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `$catagory`");

$numItems = mysql_fetch_row($query);

echo $numItems[0];