mysql distinct and count

Question

I have table like this:

+------+-------+
| user | data  |
+------+-------+
|  1   |   a   |
+------+-------+
|  1   |   b   |
+------+-------+
|  2   |   c   |
+------+-------+

I need to get something like:

Array
(
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 1
)

Get unique user and count the instances in data row, any ideas?

I've tried with this query:

SELECT DISTINCT user from table ORDER BY ID DESC

Answer 1

You should use GROUP BY for this.

SELECT `User`, COUNT(data) TotalCount
FROM tableName
GROUP BY `User`
ORDER BY TotalCount DESC

Answer 2

SELECT COUNT(*) from table GROUP BY user

(not tested)