How to get the correct number of columns from mysql_fetch_array()?

Question

Hi

Here is a line of my code

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

I want to get how many columns are in the row. I tried count($row) but this returned what I think is the number of cells for the whole $results.

i.e there are actually 7 columns, and 2 rows and count($row) returned 14. I want a function that will return 7.

Can you see where I'm going wrong.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - Answer found

Passed MYSQL_NUM as a second parameter to mysql_fetch_array.
Thanks anyway to everyone's answers.

Answer 1

PHP has a function that returns the number of columns:

mysql_num_fields($result)

As the other answers say, you're getting double the count because mysql_fetch_array() returns both associative keys (by column name) and numeric keys. I'd use the above function instead though, regardless of what I'm using to fetch my rows.

Answer 2

mysql_fetch_array() returns the row as a combined array of numeric indexes and associative keys. Which is why you get 14 instead of 7.

Use mysql_fetch_row() instead to get just the next row as a numeric index. Or mysql_fetch_assoc() to get it with associative keys. Changing to either one will cause count($row) to return 7.

Edit I originally said mysql_fetch_array() returns the entire result. I have corrected this. The point still stands: using one of the other functions I mentioned will fix the issue.

Answer 3

When you use mysql_fetch_array each row has the columns indexed twice, once by column number and once by column name. So count($row) will be twice the number of columns.

Use mysql_fetch_row if you only want numerical indices, and mysql_fetch_assoc if you want name indices. These functions will both return rows with 7 entries.