Echo returned value from count(*) mysql query

Question

I cannot figure out why this does not echo anything. What I am trying to echo is the amount of users in the db table. Any help would be appreciated.

$stmt = $dbh->prepare("SELECT count(*) FROM Users");
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt -> fetch();
echo $result;

Answer 1

Having only one column selected, doesn't make the fetch method to return string. In most of the cases it still returns its default fetch - associative array.

You need to alias the column with AS in order to access it as column

$stmt = $dbh->prepare("SELECT count(*) AS cnt FROM Users");
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt -> fetch();
echo $result['cnt'];