Using count(*)..????

[Ravenous]

Here's the code I'm using:

		$q = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes";
		$num = mysql_query($q) or die(mysql_error());
		if($num){
			$skip = round(rand(0,$num - 1));
			echo $skip;
             }

The table in question has only one row in it. However, it had a few more in the past. The problem is that the above code wil return various values for $skip ranging from 0 all the way to 6 or 7. I tried echoing $num and I get "Resource id #7" and not 1 as expected.

Can anyone point me in the proper direction?

[Pig]

The result of a query is simply a mathematical place holder for the actual result values, NOT the values themselves.

You need to extract the values using mysql_fetch_assoc if it is one row, or mysql_fetch_array if it is multiple.

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table");
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
echo( $row[0] );