Entry

How can I get the number of rows in a database table?

What's the fastest way to return the number of rows in a table?

Jun 29th, 2000 07:32
James Jensen, Nathan Wallace, Adam Whitehead

To get the number of rows in a table you should use the COUNT(*) feature
in SQL.

Here is an example for MySQL:

    $res = mysql_db_query($db,"select count(*) from TABLE_NAME");
    $row_count = mysql_result($res,0,"count(*)");


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For MSSQL, the COUNT(*) aggregate works fine only with small tables.  
When you get tens of thousands of records, issuing a COUNT(*) query 
takes a long time because it has to fetch all the records.  So, you 
should use sp_spaceused stored procedure instead:

   $res = mssql_query($db,"sp_spaceused TABLE_NAME");
   $data = mssql_fetch_object($res);
   echo("Count for TABLE_NAME is " . $data->rows );

BLAM!  The data comes back very quick.