how to count the number of rows we have in a table

Question

I simply want to count the total number of rows I have in a table.

I will put this number in parenthesis at the right of the categories names in my website's sidebar.

Answer 1

In SQL

  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM your_table

And from PHP

  $result = mysql_query('SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM your_table');
  $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
  $count = $row['count']; 

Alternatively if you were to use PDO (without a prepared statement)

  $count = (int) $pdo->query('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM your_table')->fetchColumn(); 

Then simply echo it

  echo '(Rows: ' . $count . ')';

Or if you want to be fancy using printf

  printf('(Rows: %d)', $count);

Answer 2

It's also possible to do this from PHP in another way using mysql_num_rows() function.

Example:

$result = mysql_query('SELECT id FROM your_table');
$count = mysql_num_rows($result);