mysql count into PHP variable

Question

Let say that we have the following query:

SELECT DISTINCT COUNT(`users_id`) FROM `users_table`;

this query will return the number of the us

Answer 1

Also, an alternative using mysqli, which you should be using anyway for parameter interpolation:

$statement = $connection->prepare($the_query_from_above);
$statement->execute();
$statement->bind_result($nr_of_users);
$statement->fetch();