How can the count of columns be accurately determined in the code?

To accurately determine the count of columns in a database table, you can use the `SHOW COLUMNS` query in MySQL. This query returns a result set with information about each column in the specified table, including the column name. By counting the number of rows returned in the result set, you can determine the total count of columns in the table.

// Connect to the database
$connection = mysqli_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Check connection
if ($connection === false) {
    die("Error: Could not connect. " . mysqli_connect_error());
}

// Query to get the columns of a table
$query = "SHOW COLUMNS FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Check if query was successful
if ($result) {
    // Get the number of columns
    $num_columns = mysqli_num_rows($result);
    echo "Number of columns: " . $num_columns;
} else {
    echo "Error: Could not execute $query. " . mysqli_error($connection);
}

// Close connection
mysqli_close($connection);