Trouble getting query result to display

Question

My query is working below, except I can't display the results which should be "2" (the results of the distinct count). Instead I get "Total Authors: ID"

//var_dump Result:

array(1) {
[0]=> object(stdClass)#349 (1) {
["COUNT(DISTINCT writing.ID)"]=> string(1) “2″
}
}

//Code:

$authors = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT writing.ID)
FROM writing
LEFT JOIN stories on writing.SID = stories.SID
LEFT JOIN wp_users ON writing.ID = wp_users.ID        
WHERE (stories.SID = $the_SID)"
);

echo var_dump($authors);
print "Total Authors:" .$authors[0]->writing.ID ."<p>";

Answer 1

As you can see from the output of var_dump , your required value is being stored as a member COUNT(DISTINCT writing.ID) of the object. There are a few workarounds you can follow.

1. Store the index as a separate variable and then use it when printing.

    $t = "COUNT(DISTINCT writing.ID)"; print "Total Authors:" .$authors[0]->$t . "<p>"; 

2. Use an alias in the MySQL query.

    SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT writing.ID) AS writingID FROM writing LEFT JOIN stories ON writing.SID = stories.SID LEFT JOIN wp_users ON writing.ID = wp_users.ID WHERE (stories.SID = $the_SID) 

   and then,

    print "Total Authors:" .$authors[0]->writingID . "<p>";