Re: Count(*) Question - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Joel Burton
Subject Re: Count(*) Question
Date
Msg-id JGEPJNMCKODMDHGOBKDNGEFBCMAA.joel@joelburton.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Count(*) Question  (Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org>)
Responses Re: Count(*) Question
List pgsql-general
> >     I was reading through the Rules section of the online docs,
> and noticed the
> > following note: (* is just an abbreviation for all the
> attribute names of a
> > relation. It is expanded by the parser into the individual
> attributes, so
> > the rule system never sees it.)
> >     Does this mean that count(*) may return less than the total
> number of
> > records if all the fields in a record are NULL?
>
> Yes, I beleive so.
>
> >     If this is true, is there a better way to get a count of records?
>
> I think count(1) is the common suggestion.

Interesting. In 7.3devel, it does not fail to count the completely-null rows
in count(*). Does it actually do this for any version?


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