why does this condition never fail?

[link-pimp]

here is the code snippet

        $query = "SELECT linkid, linkdescrip, linkurl, linkowner FROM links WHERE linkurl = '$linkurl'";

        $result = mysql_query($query);

        if(!$result) error_message(sql_error());


        $query_data = mysql_fetch_array($result);
        $linkid = $query_data["linkid"];
        $linkurl = $query_data["linkurl"];
        $linkdescrip = $query_data["linkdescrip"];
        $linkowner = $query_data["linkowner"];
        $query_data = mysql_fetch_row($result);
        $total_num = $query_data[0];

        if (!$result) {
                echo "record not found!";
                exit;
                }
                else {
                echo "$result";
                echo "<h1>Showing link from  database</h1><p>";
                echo "<h2>Link Number: $linkid Url: $linkurl<br>Description: $linkdescrip<br>Link owner: $linkowner</br></h2$
                echo "Total links: $total_num"; 

yet the condition never fails! shouldn't the result = 0 if the record can't be found?

[krayziepjf]

There is information in $result because your query was executed successfully to the database. You should instead be checking if $result contains any selected rows. Do this by:

 if (mysql_num_rows($result) == 0) 

[frezno]

you are using the !$result twice. I don't think that can work properly.
Also there's twice the $query_data, one with fetch_row and the other with fetch_array.
COUNT(*) might be a help for $total_num.
Whatever you want to do, to me this snippet looks kind of weird.

[coo_t2]

here is the code snippet

        $query = "SELECT linkid, linkdescrip, linkurl, linkowner FROM links WHERE linkurl = '$linkurl'";

        $result = mysql_query($query);

        if(!$result) error_message(sql_error()); 

To get the behavior you expect you should check the number of rows returned as someone has suggested. But you could keep this line in if you wanted, as this would cause an error message if the query fails.
Just keep in mind that a query doesn't have to return any rows in order to be successful.

--ed

[link-pimp]

thanks for the instant answers guys! it works now, just like you said krayzie!