(sql) how can I use count() method when data type is text?

Question

select count(category) from list where category like \'action\'

above is a query i want to run. However, when I run that query, I am getting data

Answer 1

You cant apply COUNT() function on text,ntext,image datatypes.

Why you can't use :

select count(*) from list where category like 'action'

? Do you have some nulls ?

If you don't have to exclude null value the above query could already work well ...