php mysql max() question

just want the max of an integer field ultimately into a variable.

<?php
$MaxSalesOrders = 'SELECT MAX(orderno) FROM salesorders;';
mysql_connect("$HOST", "$USER", "$PASSWD");
mysql_select_db("lighting_unlimited");
$MaxSalesOrdersResult = mysql_query($MaxSalesOrders);
mysql_close();
echo var_dump($MaxSalesOrdersResult) . " - " . \
$MaxSalesOrdersResult;
?>

seems pretty straight forward. In mysqlclient, the answer is of course
returned - perhaps as a row, I'm never quite sure.

The code above returns the following in a browser...

resource(6) of type (mysql result) - Resource id #6

and I've been trying all sorts of things 'SELECT AS...' and Googled for
several hours and I'm sort of convinced that what is being returned from
the sql query is neither an array, nor string and has to be converted
into a variable that is useful to me.

Anyone know how to do this (i.e. without pear-db)?

Craig


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