MySQLi count(*) always returns 1

Question

I'm trying to count the number of rows in a table and thought that this was the correct way to do that:

$result = $db->query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `table`;");
$count = $result->num_rows;

But counts always returns (int)1. If I use the same query in phpMyAdmin I get the right result. It sits in a table so I tried testing $count[0] as well, but that returns NULL.

What is the right way to do this?

Answer 1

You have to fetch that one record, it will contain the result of Count()

$result = $db->query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `table`");
$row = $result->fetch_row();
echo '#: ', $row[0];

Answer 2

Always try to do an associative fetch, that way you can easy get what you want in multiple case result

Here's an example

$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS cityCount FROM myCity")
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
echo $row['cityCount']." rows in table myCity.";

$result->close();