Problem with phpMyAdmin and PHP 7.2: "Warning in ./libraries/sql.lib.php#613 count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable"

Problem with phpMyAdmin and PHP 7.2: “Warning in ./libraries/sql.lib.php#613 count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable”

Last updated on February 7th, 2021 | 215 replies

These errors occur if your version of phpMyAdmin is not compatible with your version of PHP. For example, when PHP 7.2 was released, there were compatibility issues with some phpMyAdmin versions in the repository (phpMyAdmin v4.6.x). You can either resolve these issues by manually upgrading phpMyAdmin or you can instead alter some lines of code in phpMyAdmin to temporarily resolve the issue.

sql.lib.php

This error is caused by a line of code in /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/sql.lib.php.

If you don’t want to wait for the repositories to update with the latest version, it is strongly recommended that you manually upgrade to the latest version of phpMyAdmin yourself.

Alternatively, you can make a change to sql.lib.php to temporarily fix the error.

Firstly, backup sql.lib.php before editing.

sudo cp /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/sql.lib.php /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/sql.lib.php.bak

Edit sql.lib.php in nano.

sudo nano /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/sql.lib.php

Press CTRL + W and search for (count($analyzed_sql_results['select_expr'] == 1)

Replace it with ((count($analyzed_sql_results['select_expr']) == 1)

Save file and exit. (Press CTRL + X, press Y and then press ENTER)

Import/Export issues

If you are also getting an error Warning in ./libraries/plugin_interface.lib.php#551 under import and export tabs:

Backup plugin_interface.lib.php

sudo cp /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/plugin_interface.lib.php /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/plugin_interface.lib.php.bak

Edit plugin_interface.lib.php

sudo nano /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/plugin_interface.lib.php

Press CTRL + W and search for if (! is_null($options) && count($options) > 0) {

If not found, try search for if ($options != null && count($options) > 0)

Replace with if (! is_null($options) && count((array)$options) > 0) {

Save file and exit. (Press CTRL + X, press Y and then press ENTER)

Upgrading phpMyAdmin

You may be interested in an article I wrote on manually upgrading phpMyAdmin. Since the release of Ubuntu 18.04, the repositories have been slow to update with the latest version of phpMyAdmin causing many compatibility issues, so make sure you have the latest version: