Return MySQL Count via PHP

Question

I have a PHP function that looks like this:

function count_creatives() {
    global $db;
    $q = "SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT creative) FROM actions";
    return $db->query($q);
}

The $db variable contains a PDO object and is set correctly (used successfully elsewhere).

When I try to assign the result of this function to a variable, it only contains the querystring (no results).

Code I'm Running:

$count = count_creatives();

echo $count;

Output:

PDOStatement Object ( [queryString] => SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT creative) FROM actions )

Any idea why I'm not getting the actual count (e.g. 2, 3, 100)?

BenM · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-30 14:23:42Z

1

You're returning the resource object from your function, not the field value. You need to fetch the result and then return that. Please use the following:

function count_creatives() 
{
    global $db;
    $q = "SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT creative) AS `total` FROM actions";
    $result = $db->query($q);
    $actions = $result->fetchObject();

    return $actions->total;
}

answered Oct 30, 2013 at 14:23

BenM

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 20:42:18Z

1

PDO::query() returns a PDOStatement object, or FALSE on failure. You need to do something like,

function count_creatives() {
    global $db;
    $q = "SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT creative) FROM actions";
    $query = $db->query($q);
    return $query->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM)[0];
}

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 20:42

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Oct 30, 2013 at 14:22

Ben Fortune

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1 Comment

BenM Over a year ago

count_creatives() will return an array, not the count.

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