Fastest way to count number of rows in MySQL table?

Let us first see an example to create a table, add records and display them. The CREATE command is used to create a table.

mysql> CREATE table RowCountDemo
-> (
-> ID int,
-> Name varchar(100)
> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.95 sec)

Records are inserted with the INSERT command.

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(1,'Larry');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(2,'John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(3,'Bela');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(4,'Jack');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(5,'Eric');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(6,'Rami');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.49 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(7,'Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(8,'Maike');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.77 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(9,'Rocio');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

mysql>INSERT into RowCountDemo values(10,'Gavin');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)

Displaying the records.

mysql>SELECT *from RowCountDemo;

The following is the output of the above query.

+------+-------+
| ID   | Name  |
+------+-------+
| 1    | Larry |
| 2    | John  |
| 3    | Bela  |
| 4    | Jack  |
| 5    | Eric  |
| 6    | Rami  |
| 7    | Sam   |
| 8    | Maike |
| 9    | Rocio |
| 10   | Gavin |
+------+-------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

To count the number of rows at a fast pace, we have the following two options −

Query 1

mysql >SELECT count(*) from RowCountDemo;

The following is the output of the above query.

+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
| 10       |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Query 2

mysql>SELECT count(found_rows()) from RowCountDemo;

The following is the output of the above query.

+---------------------+
| count(found_rows()) |
+---------------------+
| 10                  |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)