MySQL: Getting the record number?

[cancer10]

Hi

Suppose I have a query:

SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY user_id DESC

and this returns 300 rows.

What I want to know is, is it possible (in MYSQL) to know whats the record number for the user_id 50?


I know I can run a loop in my php script and start a counter and get the record number with simple if() condition, but if there are 8000 records in my table, I dont want to iterate thru all the 8000 records...hence looking for an efficient SQL Query.


Pls Help
Thanks

[WolfShade]

Does the table have a column for the id of each record in the table? If so, then you can just access that by querying the query (ie, SELECT * FROM [queryName] WHERE user_id = 50). Depending upon what scripting language you're using. I know it can be done in ColdFusion. Not sure about anything else.