title: mysqli_num_rows returns 1 no matter what
body: <p>When I do a SQL search in phpMyAdmin (substituting the variable for the actual value) it returns the correct row number but when using PHP to return this value it always returns 1 no matter what.  Thanks in advance.</p>
  
  <pre><code>function user_exists($username) {
      $link = mysqli_connect('localhost','root','','test');
      $username = sanitize($username);
      $query = mysqli_query($link, "SELECT COUNT(`user_id`) FROM `new_base` WHERE `username`='$username'");
      $row_cnt = mysqli_num_rows($query);
      echo $row_cnt;
      mysqli_free_result($query);
      mysqli_close($link);
  }
  </code></pre>