BetterPHP

So i built a login system but there's an error I keep getting when a user registers wrong
it says :
Warning: mysql_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/brian_utxt/brian.urbantxt.org/core/inc/user.inc.php on line 9


and line 9 is:
return (mysql_result($total, 0) == '1') ? true : false;

Please help!!

This error occurs when you have an error in your SQL query.
Post all the code that's relevant, not just the last line please