Whats the best way to get total # of records in a mysql table with php?

Question

Whats the most efficient way of selecting total number of records from a large table? Currently, Im simply doing

$result = mysql_query(\"SELECT id FROM table         


        

Answer 1

According to the MySQL documentation this is most efficient if you're using a MyISAM table (which is the most usual type of tables used):

$result = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table");

Otherwise you should do as Wayne stated and be sure that the counted column is indexed.