# PHP/MySQL Custom message for empty result set

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285>\
**Category:** programming\
**Created:** [June 4, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285 "2008-06-04T17:04:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![imagined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a87d85/32.png) [@imagined](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/imagined)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/1 "2008-06-04T17:04:40Z")

</div>

I run a query, lets say…

```auto
SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE category = "customers"

```

I get an empty result set because there are no contacts that are customers

How would I display a custom message with PHP? For example, something that would let me say “Sorry, there are no results”.

I tried

```php
if(empty($result))
{
     echo 'Sorry, there are no results.';
}

```

but doesn’t work

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sekasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@sekasi](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/sekasi)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/2 "2008-06-04T17:41:49Z")

</div>

$data = @mysql\_fetch\_assoc($result);  
if(empty($data)… etc

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![djheru](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/djheru/32/3190_2.png) [@djheru](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/djheru)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/3 "2008-06-05T13:12:15Z")

</div>

Or you could use

```php

$result = @mysql_query($sql) or die("ERROR - Unable to select the database-".mysql_error());
$count = @mysql_num_rows($result);
if($count > 0)
{
     //fetch array or whatever
}
else
{
    //Display "no results found" message
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![imagined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a87d85/32.png) [@imagined](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/imagined)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/4 "2008-06-05T14:35:30Z")

</div>

Thanks! I came up with this:

```php

$result = mysql_query($query);
if(!$result){$error.= 'Query failed: '.mysql_error();}

// IF THERE ARE NO RESULTS DISPLAY MESSAGE
$fetch_row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
$numrows = $fetch_row[0];
if($numrows==0)
{
 echo 'There are no articles in this category yeeeet, check back soon.';
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![simplistik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/simplistik/32/7747_2.png) [@simplistik](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/simplistik)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/5 "2008-06-05T16:04:33Z")

</div>

soooo … you made an array of an array? was there a reason for that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![imagined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a87d85/32.png) [@imagined](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/imagined)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-mysql-custom-message-for-empty-result-set/262285/6 "2008-06-05T16:41:31Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=simplistik;2337328]soooo … you made an array of an array? was there a reason for that?[/QUOTE]

hey simplistik! long time no contact.

what do you mean an array of an array?

I made a query like…

```php
SELECT * FROM articles WHERE category1 = "Apache"

```

If there were no rows returned from the query I wanted to display a message like…  
" There are no articles from this category"