Trying to use COUNT as SQL query via fetch_object() but it doesn't work

Question

So this is what my screen gives me

mysqli_result Object
(
    [current_field] => 0
    [field_count] => 1
    [lengths] => 
    [num_rows] => 1
    [type] => 0
)
1
stdClass Object
(
    [COUNT('user_id')] => 0
)
1

I'm trying to access the [COUNT('user_id')] part, but I can't seem to find out how on the internet. The code I'm using is:

    $query = $db->query("SELECT COUNT('user_id') FROM user_credentials WHERE email='$email'");

echo "<pre>", print_r($query), "</pre>";

if($query->num_rows){
    while($row = $query->fetch_object()){
        echo "<pre>", print_r($row), "</pre><br />";
        #echo "<h1>", $row->COUNT['user_id'], "</h1>"; 
    }
}

Obviously the trouble is $row->COUNT['user_id'], but I don't know how to access that. It's not an array so I'm at a loss. I've just begun learning objects.

Answer 1

Use alias in your query as follows

$query = $db->query("SELECT COUNT('user_id')  as c FROM user_credentials WHERE email='$email'");

and fetch alias name... it will solve your problem...