table row count

"Martin Hurst" <martinh@ix.netcom.com> writes:

Is there a way to get the row count of a user table without doing the?
select count(*) from <table>

If this were an easy problem, count() would do it for you ;-)

If you're willing to settle for an approximate answer,
pg_class.reltuples might do. It's the row count as of the last VACUUM.

regards, tom lane

On Sun, Feb 09, 2003 at 00:08:59 -0500,
Martin Hurst <martinh@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

Is there a way to get the row count of a user table without doing the?

select count(*) from <table>

which can take some time and even do a table scan if the table has millions
of rows in it.

Are there any system tables or views that hold this value for any given user
table?

No. If you are going to do lots of counts relative to inserts and deletes,
you can keep the count in another table and create triggers to update it.