Count number of rows without using any aggregate functions - sql

Question

I need to count the number of rows in a table with a single SQL query.
That query should not contain any aggregate function like COUNT.

Answer 1

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned this yet:
EXEC sp_spaceused #objname = N'MyTable', #updateusage = 'TRUE'
This will, among other things return the current count of records in the table.
This would also work in most cases:
SELECT rows
FROM sys.partitions
WHERE index_id IN (1,0)
AND object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'MyTable')

Answer 2

The ROW_NUMBER ranking function will do the trick in a single query without using an aggregate function:
SELECT TOP 1 Row
FROM (
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY SomeColumn) Row
FROM YourTable) output
ORDER BY Row DESC

Answer 3

Easy way:
DECLARE #i INT = 0
SELECT #i = #i + 1
FROM <WHAT EVER>
SELECT #i AS RC
Fast, effective and no need for all sorts of sub queries as it requires only one run through the data :)

Answer 4

An over() function solves the problem.
select Column1,Column2, count(*) over() as testColumn from tablename

Answer 5

COUNT THE NUMBER OF ROWS OF ITEMS.
SELECT MAX(EMPLOYEE_ID) FROM (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY EMPLOYEE_ID DESC) EMPLOYEE_ID FROM MYCODE);

Answer 6

Since "single SQL query" has proven to be a loose requirement, consider what I thought of immediately...but dismissed as unfit (as I indicated in comments on #AllenSHansen's answer):
SELECT 1 FROM YourTable;
SELECT ##ROWCOUNT;

Answer 7

try this
SELECT MAX(Row) FROM
(SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY anycolumn DESC) Row FROM tablename) output
but what is stopping you use Count()? prefer to use count().

Answer 8

Here you may find one way to do that:
SELECT
Total_Rows= SUM(st.row_count)
FROM
sys.dm_db_partition_stats st
WHERE
object_name(object_id) = 'Mytable' AND (index_id < 2)
Find a good discussion on it here.

Answer 9

There are to ways to count records in a table:
Let the dbms count. You'd use an aggregate function for this, e.g. select count(*) from mytable;
You count. I.e. execute select * from mytable; and then count the records shown.
I would suggest the former method, but you seem to want to use the latter. Enjoy.

Answer 10

Using ROW_NUMBER(), you will get the total number of rows in a table without using aggregate functions as the 2-step example below demonstrates.
1) Table & Data Setup
Example:
Create Table Dted (id int , name Varchar(20))
Insert into dted values (1,'aaa'),(2,'bbb'),(3,'ccc')
Select * from dted
Output:
id name
1 aaa
2 bbb
3 ccc
2) Total Number of Rows
Example:
select top 1 ROW_NUMBER() over (order by id) as TotRows from dted order by TotRows desc
Output:
TotRows
3