my sql best practice with php for counting rows

Question

1) Count record:

//Connect to mysql server
$link = mysql_connect(HOST, USER, PASSWORD);
if(!$link) {
    die(\'Could not connect to server: \' . mysql_error());
         


        

Answer 1

$query="SELECT COUNT(id) FROM `table` WHERE `abc`='123'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$count = mysql_fetch_row($result);

This will work fast and light. Also, as Jack said in the comments above, you should use either MySQLi, or PDO, because the MySQL addon has been deprecated by PHP.