What does “select count(1) from table_name” on any database tables mean?

Question

When we execute select count(*) from table_name it returns the number of rows.

What does count(1) do? What does 1 signify here

Answer 1

Here is a link that will help answer your questions. In short:

count(*) is the correct way to write it and count(1) is OPTIMIZED TO BE count(*) internally -- since

a) count the rows where 1 is not null is less efficient than
b) count the rows