my sql best practice with php for counting rows

Question

1) Count record:

//Connect to mysql server
$link = mysql_connect(HOST, USER, PASSWORD);
if(!$link) {
    die(\'Could not connect to server: \' . mysql_error());
         


        

Answer 1

When you only need the count the record, you should use COUNT() function of mysql, instead of load all of the records.

$query="SELECT COUNT(*) AS num FROM `table` WHERE `abc`='123'";

Second, use PDO instead of mysql_ functions.

Answer 2

$query="SELECT COUNT(id) FROM `table` WHERE `abc`='123'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$count = mysql_fetch_row($result);

This will work fast and light. Also, as Jack said in the comments above, you should use either MySQLi, or PDO, because the MySQL addon has been deprecated by PHP.

Answer 3

Why not the let the DB do it - What about a simple

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table WHERE abc=123;

Answer 4

mysql has a count function:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/counting-rows.html

so you could use:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table WHERE abc=123

or whatever condition.