Faster alternative in Oracle to SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sometable

If the table has an index on a NOT NULL column the COUNT(*) will use that. Otherwise it is executes a full table scan. Note that the index doesn't have to be UNIQUE it just has to be NOT NULL.

Here is a table...

SQL> desc big23
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ---------------------------
 PK_COL                                    NOT NULL NUMBER
 COL_1                                              VARCHAR2(30)
 COL_2                                              VARCHAR2(30)
 COL_3                                              NUMBER
 COL_4                                              DATE
 COL_5                                              NUMBER
 NAME                                               VARCHAR2(10)

SQL>

First we'll do a count with no indexes ....

SQL> explain plan for
  2      select count(*) from big23
  3  /

Explained.

SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display)
  2  /
select * from table)dbms_xplan.display)

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 983596667

--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation          | Name  | Rows  | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT   |       |     1 |  1618   (1)| 00:00:20 |
|   1 |  SORT AGGREGATE    |       |     1 |            |          |
|   2 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| BIG23 |   472K|  1618   (1)| 00:00:20 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Note

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

13 rows selected.

SQL>

No we create an index on a column which can contain NULL entries ...

SQL> create index i23 on big23(col_5)
  2  /

Index created.

SQL> delete from plan_table
  2  /

3 rows deleted.

SQL> explain plan for
  2      select count(*) from big23
  3  /

Explained.

SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display)
  2  /

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 983596667

--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation          | Name  | Rows  | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT   |       |     1 |  1618   (1)| 00:00:20 |
|   1 |  SORT AGGREGATE    |       |     1 |            |          |
|   2 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| BIG23 |   472K|  1618   (1)| 00:00:20 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Note

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

13 rows selected.

SQL>

Finally let's build the index on the NOT NULL column ....

SQL> drop index i23
  2  /

Index dropped.

SQL> create index i23 on big23(pk_col)
  2  /

Index created.

SQL> delete from plan_table
  2  /

3 rows deleted.

SQL> explain plan for
  2      select count(*) from big23
  3  /

Explained.

SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display)
  2  /

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 1352920814

----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation             | Name | Rows  | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT      |      |     1 |   326   (1)| 00:00:04 |
|   1 |  SORT AGGREGATE       |      |     1 |            |          |
|   2 |   INDEX FAST FULL SCAN| I23  |   472K|   326   (1)| 00:00:04 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Note

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

13 rows selected.

SQL>

Think about it: the database really has to go to every row to do that. In a multi-user environment my COUNT(*) could be different from your COUNT(*). It would be impractical to have a different counter for each and every session so you have literally to count the rows. Most of the time anyway you would have a WHERE clause or a JOIN in your query so your hypothetical counter would be of litte practical value.

There are ways to speed up things however: if you have an INDEX on a NOT NULL column Oracle will count the rows of the index instead of the table. In a proper relational model all tables have a primary key so the COUNT(*) will use the index of the primary key.

Bitmap index have entries for NULL rows so a COUNT(*) will use a bitmap index if there is one available.

This works great for large tables.

SELECT NUM_ROWS FROM ALL_TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'TABLE_NAME_IN_UPPERCASE';

For small to medium size tables, following will be ok.

SELECT COUNT(Primary_Key) FROM table_name;

Cheers,

If you want just a rough estimate, you can extrapolate from a sample:

SELECT COUNT(*) * 100 FROM sometable SAMPLE (1);

For greater speed (but lower accuracy) you can reduce the sample size:

SELECT COUNT(*) * 1000 FROM sometable SAMPLE (0.1);

For even greater speed (but even worse accuracy) you can use block-wise sampling:

SELECT COUNT(*) * 100 FROM sometable SAMPLE BLOCK (1);