Issue with [total]

I am working on a recording database and have run in to an issue with using 'total'. SQL: $sqla = ("select count(*) as total from sidea;"); $resulta = $conn->query($sqla); if ($resulta->num_rows > 0) { while($row = $resulta->fetch_assoc()) { $newcode = 1 + $row[total]; echo "<center>" . "Side A Index: " . $newcode . "</center>"; } } Total is giving me odd results in one instance I can add 1 to total and I get the correct number. Other times I have to add 2 to total, I'm not sure how total is stored. total should be the number of rows in the table, adding one should give me the next number but it tells me there is a duplicate ?