Counting values?

[Anon]

Does anybody knows how I can count a not defined variable? I'm building a forum and I want to count how many postings there are, but I don't know how to count them together, because it's one variable. Please help.

[[deleted]]

Count an undefined var? How can you count what's not there?

Tell us a little more about what you want to do, explain how you are storing the posts etc.

[Anon]

Well, I use a MySql database and then I connect and I get the information I want:

$query = "SELECT * FROM algemeen where Posting = '1'";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die ("Mislukt!");
print ("...

And now it prints nothing out yet, but I want it to print out how many postings there are and when the last one was posted. So it has to count how many postings there are in total and when the last one was posted. I hope you understand this.

[[deleted]]

use count() to get a count, and use max() to get the maximum date:

SELECT count(1) AS aantal, MAX(datum) AS datumnieuwstepost
FROM algemeen
WHERE Posting=1;

then fetch the resultrow (there will be only one) and print the data:

if (!$rResult = mysql_query($sQuery))
{
echo mysql_error();
}
else
{
$aRow = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
echo $aRow['aantal'].' posts, en de laatste is van '.$aRow['datumnieuwstepost;

A few side-notes that may or may not be usefull:
- From the table name 'algemeen' I take it you are using one table per forum? Try changing that to one table for all forums, and give each record a 'forumid' (1=algemeen, 2=algemeen, 3=stuffis generalis, etc) that way you can add new forums without changing your database model.

• IN the query, you have quotes around the 1 in Posting='1'. I guess that is a typo and Posting really is an integer?

• Forget all about 'or die', and use an IF statement like I did. 'Or-die' kills your script, and you hardly ever want that. What you want is a clean and nice-looking error message.

[Anon]

Thanks for your help. About what you said for using one table for the whole forum. People can't make a new forum, only send messages in a subject (forum).

P.S. Are you Dutch too?