Count number of rows with WHERE condition with CodeIgniter's active record syntax

I am trying to do a COUNT that has WHERE clauses in it with the code below:

function count_tasks($userId)
{
    $this->db->count_all('tasks');
    $this->db->where('tasksAssignedTo', $userId);
    $query = $this->db->where('taskPriority_taskPriorityId !=', 6);
    return $query;
}

However Codeigniter only seems to be running the following query:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS `numrows` FROM `tasks`  

Why are the WHERE clause conditions not included/executed?

I guess it has something to do with returning $query but I don't know for sure.

Move the count_all('tasks') call to be after the where() calls.

The count_all() function stops the SQL building of the class.

function count_tasks($userId)
{
    $this->db->where('tasksAssignedTo', $userId);
    $this->db->where('taskPriority_taskPriorityId !=', 6);
    $query = $this->db->count_all('tasks');
    return $query;
}

The returned value $query will be an integer-type value.

The executed query WILL NOT include the WHERE logic because count_all() ignores all SQL segments compiled before its call.

SELECT COUNT(*) AS `numrows` FROM `tasks`