Need help with mySQL query

[JamesBrauman]

Hi, I am trying to get the number of pages needed to display all of my listings, with 30 listings per page. This is the code I have so far:

	$row = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(joketitle) FROM jokedata WHERE jokecategory = '$cur_category' GROUP BY jokecategory"));
	$category_count = $row['COUNT(joketitle)'];
	$pages = ceil(category_count / $jokes_per_page);

As you can see, I have alot of jokes each with different categorys. I want to get the amount of (COUNT) jokes for the particular category I am in ($cur_category), then calculate how many pages I need ($pages).

It is always returning 0.

Help?

[bpat1434]

I would simplify that query. The group by element is taking all those items and condensing it to 1 row 🙁 So even if the script did work, you'd only ever see 1 page 🙁

The reason it returns 0 is because you forgot the "$" in front of "category_count" in the ceil() function.

Here's how I would do it:

<?php
$data = mysql_fetch_row(mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS `count` FROM `jokedata` WHERE `jokecategory` = '{$cur_category}'"));

$pages = ceil($data['count'] / $jokes_per_page);

That should get you a number that's work-able. If you table has a primary key defined (which they should for optimization reasons) then COUNT(*) is just as efficient as COUNT(columnName). If you don't have a primary key defined, use COUNT(columnName) instead 😉

[JamesBrauman]

Thankyou for the quick reply 🙂