Re: Counting all rows

Stefan Arentz <stefan(dot)arentz(at)gmail(dot)com> schrieb:

> I need to get statistics from a bunch of tables. Simply the number of
> records in them.
>
> The query plan looks like this:
>
> => explain select count(id) from stuff;
> QUERY PLAN
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Aggregate (cost=1629.69..1629.70 rows=1 width=8)
> -> Seq Scan on stuff (cost=0.00..1517.75 rows=44775 width=8)
>
> The sequential scan kind of worries me. Is there a better/faster way to do
> this?

Yes.

A "select count(*) from foo;" enforces a seq. scan. Solutions for this
are discussed here: http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/120.php

Andreas
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