How to select only published posts?

Basic SQL question:

A. $qryPosts = "select count(*) -1 as ct from wp_posts where post_status = 'publish';

B. $qryPosts = "select count(*) -1 as ct from wp_posts where post_status = 0;

I’ve tried both, but no luck.

Looking at the table structure of wp_posts, I see this:

FIELD | TYPE
post_status | enum | (‘publish’, ‘draft’, ‘private’, ‘static’, ‘object’, ‘attachment’)

I assume the enum is zero-based (?)

Why do neither of my queries work correctly?

How do I select a count of only published posts?

Thanks.