checking for results return from mysql

i suppose this much have a simple solution i am missing. but here is the situation. i want to checkand see if my query returned any results. problem is if i check liek this - if($results = mysql_fetch_array($result)) it appears that a resource is returned regardless. so this is always true. the real problem is that i need to find out if something is returned without actually accessing the data. because this if statement appears to be calling the first row of result data so later when i use a while loop to go through the data i am missing the first result returned. i have tried putting a few other mysql function in the conditional. maybe i am on the wrong path . . would one of the cariable functions like isset() or soemthing check this? Thank You, Jon Yaggie www.design-monster.com And they were singing . . . '100 little bugs in the code 100 bugs in the code fix one bug, compile it again 101 little bugs in the code 101 little bugs in the code . . .' And it continued until they reached 0