---
title: 'Single Items'
url: 'https://manuals.remository.com/plotalot/single-items'
markdown: 'https://manuals.remository.com/plotalot/single-items.md'
date: '2026-10-06'
description: 'Single Items Single items return a single value from a SQL query with no added formatting, so that when they are used in an article they appear to be part of your article text. For example: “Our download count today stands at 436,991", or "today is Monday the 15th of March". A single value just ret…'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - docs
---

[](#) [ edit this page](https://github.com/getgrav/grav-skeleton-rtfm-site/blob/develop/pages/08.single-items/chapter.md) 

  [ Plotalot for Joomla ](https://manuals.remository.com/plotalot/)      Single Items    

# Single Items

Single items return a single value from a SQL query with no added formatting, so that when they are used in an article they appear to be part of your article text. For example: “Our download count today stands at 436,991", or "today is Monday the 15th of March". A single value just returns the first column of the first row returned by the query, with no formatting or html at all. Here’s another example:

```
SELECT CASE WHEN HOUR(NOW()) >= 18 THEN "Good evening"
    WHEN HOUR(NOW()) >= 12 THEN "Good afternoon"
    ELSE "Good morning" END
```

There are no rules about the number of columns or their type.

If you set the Plotalot component configuration option to allow non-select queries, you can use a single item to insert or update a database row every time a page is visited. For example:

```
UPDATE `#__hit_counts` WHERE `page` = '51' SET `counter` = `counter` + 1
```

 [ ](https://manuals.remository.com/plotalot/tables/table-totals) [](https://manuals.remository.com/plotalot/external-databases)

---

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