mysqli_num_rows returns 1 no matter what

Question

When I do a SQL search in phpMyAdmin (substituting the variable for the actual value) it returns the correct row number but when using PHP to return this value it always ret

Answer 1

Count retrives a single row. Try testing the SQL in phpmyadmin and see the result. This single row returned by the query has the number you are looking for.

I suggest also doing something like

SELECT COUNT('user_id') AS user_matches FROM ....

This way you can access the via the 'user_matches' key.

*I would not recommend using SELECT * FROM ... * with the num_rows, this would be very slow compared to a count().