Re: Fastest way to get table records' number

It seems that count(*) pulls all the data from the row then performs a count increment whereas count(did) only pulls the 'did' column. I wonder if count(did) is the same speed as count(1) or if it will depend on how much/what type of data is in 'did'. I also wonder why count() takes a parameter. Isn't it always going to count +1 for the row? I'll have to look that up sometime. -TG ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Nobbe" <quickshiftin@gmail.com> To: "Andrew Ballard" <aballard@gmail.com> Cc: "PHP General list" <php-general@lists.php.net> Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:35:16 -0400 Subject: Re: [PHP] Fastest way to get table records' number > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Andrew Ballard <aballard@gmail.com> wrote: > > > That works; I'm just wondering why you went with a count on an 'ID' column > > rather than COUNT(*). > > > ouch, it looks like im horribly wrong :O > mysql> select count(*) from table; > +----------+ > | count(*) | > +----------+ > | 361724 | > +----------+ > 1 row in set (0.90 sec) > > mysql> select count(id) from table; > +------------+ > | count(did) | > +------------+ > | 361724 | > +------------+ > 1 row in set (4.56 sec) > > -nathan > >