count() total records for pagination with limit

I seem to recall that it is possible to count all instances of a query that is limited by $RecordsPerPage without repeating the same query. I believe that COUNT() had to called immediately after the SELECT word but I neglected to bookmark the source. Dummy! I don't like the idea of count(*) over count() or something like that as it seems rather slow fram what I read. right now I do this: $sql = "SELECT * FROM book WHERE id IN (SELECT bookID FROM book_author WHERE authID IN (SELECT author.id FROM author WHERE LEFT(last_name, 1 ) = '$Auth')) "; $Count1 = mysql_num_rows(mysql_query($sql, $db)); $books = array(); $SQL = "SELECT * FROM book WHERE id IN (SELECT bookID FROM book_author WHERE authID IN (SELECT author.id FROM author WHERE LEFT(last_name, 1 ) = '$Auth')) ORDER BY $sort $dir LIMIT $offset, $records_per_page "; if ( ( $results = mysql_query($SQL, $db) ) !== false ) { while ( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($results) ) { $books[$row['id']] = $row; } } $Count = mysql_num_rows($results); $Count gives me the actual rows for display - $Count1 gives me the total rows available. Can this be streamlined any? -- unheralded genius: "A clean desk is the sign of a dull mind. " ------------------------------------------------------------- Phil Jourdan --- pj@ptahhotep.com http://www.ptahhotep.com http://www.chiccantine.com/andypantry.php