For some reason when a user enters a brand new username the error message <p>Username unavailable</p> is displayed and the name is not stored. I was wondering if some can help find the flaw in my code so I can fix this error? Thanks

Here is the PHP code.

if($_POST['username'] && trim($_POST['username'])!=='') {
    $u = "SELECT * 
          FROM users 
          WHERE username  = '$username'
          AND user_id <> '$user_id'";
    $r = mysqli_query ($mysqli, $u) or trigger_error("Query: $u\n<br />MySQL Error: " . mysqli_error($mysqli));

    if (mysqli_num_rows($r) == TRUE) {
        echo '<p>Username unavailable</p>';
        $_POST['username'] = NULL;
    } else if(isset($_POST['username']) && mysqli_num_rows($r) == 0 && strlen($_POST['username']) <= 255) { 
        $username = mysqli_real_escape_string($mysqli, $_POST['username']);
    } else if($_POST['username'] && strlen($_POST['username']) >= 256) {
        echo '<p>Username can not exceed 255 characters</p>';
    }
}