Need a row count after SELECT statement: what's the optimal SQL approach?

Question

I\'m trying to select a column from a single table (no joins) and I need the count of the number of rows, ideally before I begin retrieving the rows. I have come to two app

Answer 1

You might want to think about a better pattern for dealing with data of this type.

No self-prespecting SQL driver will tell you how many rows your query will return before returning the rows, because the answer might change (unless you use a Transaction, which creates problems of its own.)

The number of rows won't change - google for ACID and SQL.