What are the potential pitfalls of using the "Count" function in PHP when retrieving data from a database?

When using the "Count" function in PHP to retrieve data from a database, one potential pitfall is that it may not return the expected count if the query is not properly constructed or if there are errors in the database connection. To solve this issue, it is important to ensure that the query is correct and that the database connection is established before using the "Count" function. 

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

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

// Construct the query to retrieve data
$query = "SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM table_name";

// Execute the query
$result = $connection->query($query);

// Check if the query was successful
if ($result) {
    $row = $result->fetch_assoc();
    $count = $row['count'];
    
    echo "Total count: " . $count;
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $connection->error;
}

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

Keywords

Count function PHP database retrieval

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