Is using mysqli_num_rows() a cleaner and more reliable way to check for the number of rows returned by a SELECT query in PHP?

Using mysqli_num_rows() is a cleaner and more reliable way to check for the number of rows returned by a SELECT query in PHP compared to other methods like counting the result array. It directly returns the number of rows fetched from the database, making it more efficient and accurate.

// Establish database connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

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

// Execute SELECT query
$result = $conn->query("SELECT * FROM table_name");

// Check if rows were returned
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // Output data of each row
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "Column 1: " . $row["column1"]. " - Column 2: " . $row["column2"]. "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

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