Whats the proper way to check if mysql_query() returned any results?

Question

I tried what seemed like the most intuitive approach

$query = "SELECT * FROM members 
          WHERE username = '$_CLEAN[username]'
          AND password = '$_CLEAN[password]'";
$result = mysql_query($query);

if ($result)
{ ... 

but that didn't work because mysql_query returns a true value even if 0 rows are returned.

I basically want to perform the logic in that condition only if a row is returned.

Answer 1

Use mysql_num_rows:

 if (mysql_num_rows($result)) {
    //do stuff
 }

Answer 2

If you're checking for exactly one row:

if ($Row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
    // do stuff
}

You can use mysql_fetch_array() instead, or whatever, but the principle is the same. If you're doing expecting 1 or more rows:

while ($Row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
    // do stuff
}

This will loop until it runs out of rows, at which point it'll continue on.