php - How do I count the number of replies in a board of my custom forum? -

i developing custom forum php , mysql. have 3 primary tables in scenario: boards, threads, , messages. count number of messages in board. threads table has column called "first_msg_id" reference first message of thread. query shouldn't count message.

 create table if not exists `forum_messages` (   `message_id` int(15) not null auto_increment,   `thread_id` int(15) not null,   `author_id` int(15) not null,   `modifier_id` int(15) default null,   `content` text not null,   `date_posted` timestamp not null default current_timestamp on update current_timestamp,   `date_modified` timestamp null default null,   primary key (`message_id`) ) engine=innodb  default charset=latin1;  create table if not exists `forum_threads` (   `thread_id` int(15) not null auto_increment,   `board_id` int(15) not null,   `first_msg_id` int(15) not null,   `last_msg_id` int(15) not null,   `author_id` int(15) not null,   `updater_id` int(15) not null,   `title` text not null,   `date_posted` timestamp not null default current_timestamp on update current_timestamp,   `date_updated` timestamp not null default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',   `views` int(15) not null,   `status` tinyint(1) not null,   `type` tinyint(1) not null comment '0 normal, 1 sticky, 2 global.',   primary key (`thread_id`) ) engine=innodb  default charset=latin1;  create table if not exists `forum_boards` (   `board_id` int(15) not null auto_increment,   `parent_id` int(15) not null,   `category_id` int(15) not null,   `last_msg_id` int(15) not null,   `position` tinyint(1) not null,   `title` text not null,   `description` text not null,   `status` tinyint(1) not null,   `thread_count` int(15) not null,   `reply_count` int(15) not null,   primary key (`board_id`) ) engine=innodb  default charset=latin1;

this query have:

$query_board_replies = "                     select                         m.message_id, m.thread_id,                         t.thread_id, t.first_msg_id, t.board_id                     forum_messages m                     left join forum_threads t on t.first_msg_id != m.message_id                     t.board_id = ".$board_id."                     order m.message_id";

it doesn't return errors, giving me incorrect count. there 2 actual replies, returning count of 18 in particular board.

any ideas?

this should it.

$query = "   select     count(*)       forum_messages a,     forum_threads  b       a.thread_id   = b.thread_id    ,     a.message_id != b.first_msg_id ,     b.board_id    = " . mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, $board_id) . " "; $rs = mysqli_query($dbc, $query); list($count) = mysqli_fetch_array($rs); echo $count;