Mysql COUNT function not working - php

Question

I have a database called articles and I just wanna print out the amount of rows in my database. This is my code:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect('link', 'database', 'password');
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
$result = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM articles");
$row=mysql_fetch_array($result)
?>
<p>The amount of rows is <?php echo $row ?>.</p>
When I test this code, is just gives me 'The amount of rows is .' as output. What am I doing wrong?
Edit: This is my full code now, but it still doens't work:
$con = mysqli_connect('url', 'database', 'password');
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error());
}
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT COUNT(URL) AS row_count FROM articles");
if (!$result ) {
echo "DB Error, could not query the database\n";
echo 'MySQL Error: ' . mysqli_error($con);
exit;
}
$row=mysqli_fetch_array($result)
?>
<p>The amount of rows is <?= $row['row_count'] ?>.</p>
The error: DB Error, could not query the database MySQL Error: No database selected

Answer 1

You're trying to print the row.
Use echo $row[0] instead
Also, as it's printing nothing, I suspect your query is failing, as FALSE will be echoed as nothing in PHP.
Sidenote: mysql_* is deprecated, consider using PDO instead.
EDIT:
full code below
<?php
$con = new mysqli('url', 'database', 'password', 'db_name');
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error());
}
$result = $con->query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS row_count FROM articles");
if (!$result) {
echo "DB Error, could not query the database\n";
echo 'MySQL Error: ' . $con->error;
exit;
}
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
?>
<p>The amount of rows is <?= $row['row_count'] ?>.</p>

Answer 2

You are echoing an array (which should give you error). Instead you can set alias for COUNT:
$result = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT COUNT(*) AS Total FROM articles");
And echo it like:
<p>The amount of rows is <?php echo $row['Total'] ?>.</p>

Answer 3

As others said, you're trying to print the array (hence the fetch_array), when you need to print something in the array.
Also, mysql_* is depreciated, I use mysqli_* which is very similar and easy to switch to.
Also, instead of *, try a fieldname in the count. I usually use the index, or primary key or something.
<?php
$link = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);
if (mysqli_connect_errno($link)) {
echo 'Could not select database:' . DB_NAME;
exit;
}
$result = mysqli_query($link, "SELECT COUNT(fieldname) AS row_count FROM articles");
if (!$result ) {
echo "DB Error, could not query the database\n";
echo 'MySQL Error: ' . mysqli_error($link);
exit;
}
$row=mysqli_fetch_array($result)
?>
<p>The amount of rows is <?= $row['row_count'] ?>.</p>