Checking if mysql_query returned anything or not

Question

$query = \"SELECT * FROM `table`\";
$results = mysql_query($query, $connection);

If \'table\' has no rows. whats the easiest way to check for this.?

Answer 1

Jeremy Ruten's answer above is good and executes quickly; on the other hand, it only gives you the number of rows and nothing else (if you want the result data, you have to query the database again). What I use:

// only ask for the columns that interest you (SELECT * can slow down the query)
$query = "SELECT some_column, some_other_column, yet_another_column FROM `table`";
$results = mysql_query($query, $connection);
$numResults = mysql_num_rows($results);
if ($numResults > 0) {
   // there are some results, retrieve them normally (e.g. with mysql_fetch_assoc())
} else {
   // no data from query, react accordingly
}