Adding WHERE cause to COUNT query - php

Question

I am having trouble getting a where clause to be part of a COUNT query.
This works to get total count of the table:
$search = $_POST['search_text'];
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM
stories')
->fetchColumn();
However, when I try to add WHERE stories.category = $search i get syntax errors when I try any of these:
$total = $dbh->query('
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
stories
WHERE
stories.category = "$search"
');
->fetchColumn();
FROM
stories
WHERE stories.category='$search'
FROM
stories
WHERE (stories.category="$search")

Answer 1

You can use a variable inside double quotes, but must use concatenation to use one inside single quotes. (ex.. 'my string '.$myvar.' some more string' )
SQL expects strings in either format '' or "" so you can use them interchangeably or with escaped quotes ...
You can escape like this inside of single and double quotes ...
" \" <--- puts a quote in without terminating the string "
' \' <--- same with single quotes '
$total = $dbh->query("
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
stories
WHERE
stories.category = \"$search\"
")
->fetchColumn();
Or
$total = $dbh->query("
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
stories
WHERE
stories.category = '$search'
")
->fetchColumn();
OR
$total = $dbh->query("
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
stories
WHERE
stories.category = '".$search."'
")
->fetchColumn();
Or
$total = $dbh->query('
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
stories
WHERE
stories.category = \''.$search.'\'
')
->fetchColumn();
Also, you can't do this...
');
->fetchColumn();
You are terminating with semi colon, then trying to invoke an object method.