Getting total row count from OFFSET / FETCH NEXT

Question

So, I\'ve got a function that returns a number of records that I want to implement paging for on my website. It was suggested to me that I use the Offset/Fetch Next in SQL

Answer 1

You can use COUNT(*) OVER() ... here is a quick example using sys.all_objects:

DECLARE 
  @PageSize INT = 10, 
  @PageNum  INT = 1;

SELECT 
  name, object_id, 
  overall_count = COUNT(*) OVER()
FROM sys.all_objects
ORDER BY name
  OFFSET (@PageNum-1)*@PageSize ROWS
  FETCH NEXT @PageSize ROWS ONLY;

However, this should be reserved for small data sets; on larger sets, the performance can be abysmal. See this Paul White article for better alternatives, including maintaining indexed views (which only works if the result is unfiltered or you know WHERE clauses in advance) and using ROW_NUMBER() tricks.