How can you efficiently calculate the total number of records in a MySQL database without having to execute the query twice in a PHP script?

To efficiently calculate the total number of records in a MySQL database without executing the query twice in a PHP script, you can use the SQL `COUNT(*)` function to retrieve the total count in a single query. By fetching the count directly from the database, you can avoid unnecessary overhead and improve performance.

// Establish a connection to the MySQL database
$connection = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Check connection
if ($connection->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $connection->connect_error);
}

// Query to get the total count of records in a table named 'your_table'
$query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as total_count FROM your_table";
$result = $connection->query($query);

// Fetch the total count from the result
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    $row = $result->fetch_assoc();
    $total_count = $row['total_count'];
    echo "Total number of records in the table: " . $total_count;
} else {
    echo "No records found";
}

// Close the connection
$connection->close();