In SQL, using the table:

mysql>  select * from sentGifts;
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+
| sentID | whenSent   | fromID | toID | trytryWhen          | giftID |
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+
|      1 | 2010-04-24 |    123 |  456 | 2010-04-24 01:52:20 |    100 |
|      2 | 2010-04-24 |    123 | 4568 | 2010-04-24 01:56:04 |    100 |
|      3 | 2010-04-24 |    123 | NULL | NULL                |      1 |
|      4 | 2010-04-24 |   NULL |  111 | 2010-04-24 03:10:42 |      2 |
|      5 | 2010-03-03 |     11 |   22 | 2010-03-03 00:00:00 |      6 |
|      6 | 2010-04-24 |     11 |  222 | 2010-04-24 03:54:49 |      6 |
|      7 | 2010-04-24 |      1 |    2 | 2010-04-24 03:58:45 |      6 |
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The following is OK:

mysql>  select *, count(*) from sentGifts group by whenSent;
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
| sentID | whenSent   | fromID | toID | trytryWhen          | giftID | count(*) |
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
|      5 | 2010-03-03 |     11 |   22 | 2010-03-03 00:00:00 |      6 |        1 |
|      1 | 2010-04-24 |    123 |  456 | 2010-04-24 01:52:20 |    100 |        6 |
+--------+------------+--------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

But suppose we want the count(*) to appear as the first column:

mysql>  select count(*), * from sentGifts group by whenSent;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '* from sentGifts group by whenSent' at line 1

it gave an error. Why is it so and what is a way to fix it?

I realized that this is ok:

mysql>  select count(*), whenSent from sentGifts group by whenSent;
+----------+------------+
| count(*) | whenSent   |
+----------+------------+
|        1 | 2010-03-03 |
|        6 | 2010-04-24 |
+----------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

but what about the one above that gave an error? thanks.