Question

I am using this code

$sql1 = mysql_query("SELECT section_id FROM forum_posts WHERE section_id='$sectionID'  ");
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($sql1);

to count the number of posts under specific category to show on the home page of the forum that how many posts are there in a particular section.
So is there a better option that to go through all the posts of that type. I think it will be a huge performance drain if I use this.

Edit 1: I just have to display the number of posts under each section in the forum so I want to check in the homepage how many topics each sections has as of now.
What will be the optimal mysql query for it.

Edit 2: Should I replace teh mysql_query function as stated in the phpmanual?

Answer 1

Just use count in sql itself.

$sql1 = mysql_query("SELECT count(post_id) as 'count_of_posts' FROM forum_posts WHERE section_id='$sectionID' ");

If you want to get all section counts at the same time you can do it this way:

$sql1 = mysql_query("SELECT section_id, count(post_id) as 'count_of_posts' FROM forum_posts WHERE section_id='$sectionID' group by section_id");