PHP: How to count the number of rows - php

Question

so far i made this OOP class but it not returning any values, any help guys i realy need it
public function countRows($table ='tb_cliente')
{
if($this->tableExists($table)){
$sql ="SELECT * FROM ".$table;
$query = #mysql_query($sql);
if($query){
$count = mysql_num_rows($query);
return true;
}
else{
return false;
}
}

Answer 1

You are not returning the value of $count.
Try return $count;

Answer 2

public function countRows($table ='tb_cliente')
{
if($this->tableExists($table)){
$sql ="SELECT * totalrows FROM ".$table;
$query = #mysql_query($sql);
if($query){
$count = mysql_num_rows(sql );
return $count;
}
else{
return false;`enter code here`
}
}
or you can use:
public function countRows($table ='tb_cliente')
{
if($this->tableExists($table)){
$sql ="SELECT count(*) as counted totalrows FROM ".$table;
$query = #mysql_query($sql);
if($query){
$count = mysql_result($query,0,"counted");
return $count;
}
else{
return false;
}
}

Answer 3

You don't need to fetch all data if the only goal is to count rows. You can use:
SELECT COUNT(column_name) FROM table_name;
This returns the number of values of the specified column.
Or you can use:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name;
which returns number of rows from selected table.
Or you can use:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) FROM table_name;
which returns the number of distinct values of the specified column.
The way you are preforming to count rows in table is kind of unnecessary overkill.