Select COUNT in MySQL

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

I want to find the quickest possible way to count the number of rows in a mysql db.

Heres part of my code that returns this "ARRAY(0x1ae8674)"

    my $sqlc = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM company_info";
        my $crows= $dbh->selectrow_arrayref($sqlc);
            print $crows;

#I did not use prepare or execute since I heard selectrow_arrayref wra
+ps it around
[download]

I also tried using print $crows[0], but then it says it requires global symbol @crows.

What am I doing wrong?

Since this code and sql statement will only generate 1 row returned with 1 column--would selectcol_arrayref be better then selectrow_arrayref ?

Thanks

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Re: Select COUNT in MySQL by robartes (Priest) on Jun 09, 2005 at 08:11 UTC
`$crows` is a reference to an array, so you have to dereference it to get at the array elements: `print $code->[0];` [download] See perlref and perlreftut for more information on references in Perl CU Robartes-	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Select COUNT in MySQL by dbwiz (Curate) on Jun 09, 2005 at 09:11 UTC
Alternatively, you may use selectrow_array to get a single value. `my ($crows) = $dbh->selectrow_array($sqlc); print $crows;` [download] Notice that `$crows` was declared in list context, to avoid side effects.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Select COUNT in MySQL by tchatzi (Acolyte) on Jun 09, 2005 at 10:24 UTC
First of all you Have to use prepare and execute with select. Only with select though, it makes the execution of the whole thing faster. With everything else use 'do' and second to do what you want, do it like this (the right way....) `my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:foo','foo','foo') or die "Connect Error: $DBI::errstr"; my $count_sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM company_info;") or die "Prepare Count Error: $DBI::errstr\n"; $count_sth->execute() or die "Execute Count Error: $DBI::errstr\n"; print $count_sth->fetchrow; $count_sth->finish; $dbh->disconnect;` [download] Isn't it simple ? ``The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.'' TIMTOWTDI	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Select COUNT in MySQL by Ben Win Lue (Friar) on Jun 09, 2005 at 08:10 UTC
Hi, just try declaring `my @crows = ...` [download] instead of `my $crows = ...` [download] update Oops I did not see the ref.... robartes is right	[reply] [d/l] [select]