PHP: PDO if user exists check doesn't work - php

Question

I'm new to PHP, I created User class/object which has a function that checks for user, it returns $stmt->rowCount() but when I check for it in code it just skip it, register the user..
Here is the code:
if(empty($name_err) && empty($email_err) && empty($username_err) && empty($password_err) && empty($confirm_password_err)) {
if($user->doesUserExist($email) === 0) {
$password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
$user->register($username, $name, $email, $password);
} else {
$global_err = "Email is already taken";
}
}
Here is the function from User class:
public function doesUserExist($email) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = :email";
$stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();
$rowcount = $stmt->rowCount($stmt);
return $rowcount;
}

Answer 1

instead of === in your condition of if($user->doesUserExist($email) === 0) try to change to ==
and then try to change your method like this:
public function doesUserExist($email) {
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '" . $email . "';";
$stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
$rowcount = count($stmt->fetchAll());
return $rowcount;
}

Answer 2

You should Try
Call the function
$checkemail=$api->checkuseremail($email);
if($checkemail)
{
echo $mail_check;
}
and define your function like this
public function checkuseremail($email)
{
$db=getDB();
$stmt = $db->prepare("Select id from table_name where email=:email");
$stmt->bindParam("email", $email, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->execute();
$count = $stmt->rowCount();
if($count)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
It will return email are already exist or not