Fastest way to get counts

Fritz

I am using the following call to get table totals and format the number results... and it really seems to be cripling load time when there are a several (new users, no of logins, personal posts etc.) of these counters on a page...

<?php

$numresults3=mysql_query("select * FROM users WHERE  TO_DAYS(NOW()) = TO_DAYS(last_login)  "); 
$todaylog=mysql_num_rows($numresults3); $todaylg=number_format($todaylog); 
?>

The WHERE clause fields ARE indexed ...

Is there a best way to do counts that don't kill load time.?

drawmack

<?php

$numresults3=mysqli_query("select count(*) FROM users WHERE  TO_DAYS(NOW()) = TO_DAYS(last_login)  "); 
$todaylog=mysqli_result($numresults3,0,0);$todaylg=number_format($todaylog); 
?>

That should speed it up a bit. Here are some references for you:
http://www.mysql.org
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.mysqli.php?PHPSESSID=a9267795ec2192e19f6436a3d4ce7902

greg252

I'm not sure, but isn't it faster to count a specific col that's indexed rather than counting *?
i.e.
select count(indexed_col)

oprpg

function mysql_count($mixed) {

if (is_resource($mixed)) return mysql_num_rows($mixed);

else {

    $result = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) AS count FROM $mixed");

    $array = mysql_fetch_array($result);

    mysql_free_result($result);

    return $array[count];

}

}

thats the funtion for it, then just use:

mysql_count("users WHERE TO_DAYS(NOW()) = TO_DAYS(last_login) ");