Question

lets assume we have this table called visits and it has two fields id for the page id and ip for the user’s ip address.

I have written this code and I’m wondering if it’s the best way?

    $ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    $id=$_GET['id'];

    $query = "SELECT
    (SELECT COUNT(ip) FROM visits WHERE id = '{$id}' AND WHERE ip ='{$ip}') as visited,
    (SELECT COUNT(ip) FROM visits WHERE id = '{$id}') as pageHits";

    $result=mysql_query($query, $connection);
    $row=mysql_fetch_array($result);

    $pageHits=$row['pageHits'];
    $visited=$row['visited']; //it's either 0 or 1;

    if($visited==0){
        $query ="INSERT INTO visits (ip , id) VALUES ('{$ip}', {$id})"
        $result=mysql_query($query, $connection);
        $pageHits++;
    }

    echo $pageHits;

Answer 1

I would not even check for an existing entry in the database.

Add a UNIQUE Key on ip and id (combined) and just run an INSERT IGNORE:

$ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$id=$_GET['id'];

$query = 'INSERT IGNORE INTO visits (ip, id) VALUES ('.$ip.', '.intval($id).')';
mysql_query($query, $connection);

// and now select the visits:
$query = 'SELECT COUNT(ip) as pageHits FROM visits WHERE id = '.intval($id);
$result = mysql_query($query, $connection);
list($pageHits) = mysql_fetch_array($result);
echo $pageHits;