The upshot of what a lot of other people are saying is, "what you are trying to do should work." Your results are atypical. Despite the number of answers that suggest you try a slightly different approach, the way you're doing it should work, I've used it without problem. I would recommend you provide an actual code sample, to ensure you're not making some minor mistake. If it turns out that this doesn't work on your setup, I would suggest that it's probably a PHP problem and not a Postgres one. More specifically, it's probably a problem with the specific version/ packaging/installation/OS of your PHP, as I've never seen the type of behaviour you're describing. In response to Lynna Landstreet <lynna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>: > > I'm trying to use a SELECT COUNT(*) to count how many results would be > retrieved from a particular query (as part of the process of paginating > search results). > > But I'm having trouble figuring out how to retrieve the result of the count > in PHP. The result on its own is a resource rather than a specific value, > but when I try to retrieve the result via pg_fetch_result, some kind of > weird math error happens and I get a huge number that bears no resemblance > to the number of results the query actually gets when it runs (1,714,608 for > a query that in actuality produces three results). > > I tried using an AS clause (SELECT COUNT(*) AS result_count FROM etc. WHERE > etc.) to give the result a name, but that didn't help, and when I tried > using pg_fetch_all on the result to see exactly what it was retrieving, I > got this: > > Array > ( > [0] => Array > ( > [result_count] => 1714608 > ) > > ) > > Again with the weird number. And yet, if I run the exact same query in the > SQL window of phpPgAdmin, I get the proper result count (3 in this > instance). > > Does anyone know what's going on here? Can I just not use SELECT COUNT(*) > with PHP at all? > > I originally had the script running the actual query and then counting the > results, and then running it again with LIMIT and OFFSET to get one page's > worth of results, but it seemed wasteful to do it that way, so I was trying > to do it more efficiently... :-/ > > Thanks, > > Lynna > > -- > Spider Silk Design - http://www.spidersilk.net > 509 St Clair W Box 73576, Toronto ON Canada M6C 1C0 > Tel 416.651.2899 - Toll Free 1.866.651.2899 - Cell 416.873.9289 > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com
