counting records and displaying

[Guest_imported]

hi this fragment of code below is giving me problems..
what simple error have i made ? i just want to count
the number of records and display it on the screen?
wonder if anyone can help

<?php $db = mysql_pconnect(&quot;dbname&quot;, &quot;user&quot;, &quot;pass&quot;
mysql_select_db(&quot;dbname&quot;,$db);
$sql = &quot;SELECT count (articleid) FROM articles a&quot;;
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$myrow = mysql_fetch_row($result);
printf(&quot;%s&quot;, $myrow[0]);
echo &quot;\n&quot;;
?>

Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource fetcharticlenumber.php3 on line 5

tek-tips.com

 

[Hokey]

You mysql_query($sql) might not be successfully querying the DB or not getting valid data. Try replacing the query line with a die statement such as this:
$result = mysql_query ($sql)
or die (&quot;The Query has failed&quot;
This will help you determine if the query was successful.

Also, if you are tring to just count the number of records, try using the mysql_num_rows() function:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-num-rows.php