While Loop echos only 1 value twice - php

Question

I have a 2 tables called forums and forum_categories in database
forum_categories
cat_id
forums
cat_id
I am trying to count the total for each category for some reason it displays total record for all records.
I have 2 categories so far in the database
first category has value of 1
second category has value of 2
In category one, I have two forums that has a cat_id of 1
In category two, I have one forum that has a cat_id of 2
it displays
category 1 -------------------- 3 ---------------
category 2 -------------------- 3 ---------------
when it should display
category 1 -------------------- 2 ---------------
category 2 -------------------- 1 ---------------
$topics_count always displays 3.
$sql = "SELECT * FROM forum_categories, forums WHERE forum_categories.cat_id = forums.cat_id GROUP BY forum_categories.cat_id";
$result = query($sql);
$sql2 = "SELECT fc.cat_title COUNT(f.forum_id) FROM forums as f LEFT JOIN forum_categories fc ON (f.cat_id = fc.cat_id) GROUP BY f.cat_id";
$result2 = query($sql2);
$topics_count = count($result2);
while (($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) != false) {
$cat_id = $row['cat_id'];
$cat_title = $row['cat_title'];
$forum_name = $row['forum_name'];
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>$cat_id</td>";
echo "<td><a href='viewforum.php?f={$cat_id}'>$cat_title</a><br>$forum_name admin</td>";
echo "<td>$topics_count</td>";
echo "<td>0</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}

Answer 1

This bit of code below gives you all results:
$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM forums WHERE cat_id = cat_id";
$result2 = query($sql2);
$topics_count = row_count($result2); // here this would be 3*
*in case of 2 for cat1 + 1 for cat2 and you echo this in each table row as:
echo "<td>$topics_count</td>";
therefore you see the total number (3) on both rows.
What you are actually trying is to join forums and forum_categories table, get the forum_categories.cat_title and COUNT(forums.cat_id) while grouping the results by forums.cat_id
SELECT
fc.cat_title,
COUNT(f.forum_id)
FROM forums as f
LEFT JOIN forum_categories fc ON (f.cat_id = fc.cat_id)
GROUP BY f.cat_id
Here is the same demo fiddle I've sent you yesterday.
Your query would then return you something like:
Demo Forum 1 | 2
Demo Forum 2 | 1
UPDATE:
$sql2 = "SELECT
fc.cat_id,
fc.cat_title,
f.forum_name,
COUNT(f.forum_id) as count
FROM forums as f
LEFT JOIN forum_categories fc ON (f.cat_id = fc.cat_id)
GROUP BY f.cat_id";
$result2 = query($sql2);
while (($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) != false) {
$cat_id = $row['cat_id']; // category id
$cat_title = $row['cat_title']; // category title
$forum_name = $row['forum_name']; // forum name
$count = $row['count']; // count of forum_id (grouped by cat_id)
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>$cat_id</td>";
echo "<td><a href='viewforum.php?f={$cat_id}'>$cat_title</a><br>$forum_name admin</td>";
echo "<td>$count</td>";
echo "<td>0</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
Here, I'm pretty sure the count would be okay, but not sure about "Forum Name".

Answer 2

try this
replace this
while (($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) != false) {
with this
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {