Whats the proper way to check if mysql_query() returned any results?

Question

I tried what seemed like the most intuitive approach

$query = \"SELECT * FROM members 
          WHERE username = \'$_CLEAN[username]\'
          AND password =          


        

Answer 1

well...

by definiton mysql_query:

mysql_query() returns a resource on success, or FALSE on error.

but what you need to understand is if this function returns a value different than FALSE the query has been ran without problems (correct syntax, connect still alive,etc.) but this doesnt mean you query is returning some row.

for example

 true

?>

so if you get FALSE you can use

mysql_errorno() and mysql_error() to know what happened..

following with this:

you can use mysql_fetch_array() to get row by row from a query