Whats the proper way to check if mysql_query() returned any results?

Question

I tried what seemed like the most intuitive approach

$query = \"SELECT * FROM members 
          WHERE username = \'$_CLEAN[username]\'
          AND password =          


        

Answer 1

$sql = "SELECT columns FROM table";
$results = mysql_query($sql, $conn);
$nResults = mysql_num_rows($results);
if ($nResults > 0) {
   //Hurray
} else {
   //Nah
}

This should work.