what does "SELECT count(*) from Tablename" mean

[Sreenivasan M]

what is the exact function of count(*)???

and what does "SELECT count(*) from Table" syntax do and signify???

[vishwanath nadimpally]

count(argument) returns the number of rows (records) for this column(argument) in a table.

    
Select count(*) from table

This returns the number of rows (records) in that table.

refer to this for more http://www.sql-tutorial.net/SQL-COUNT.asp

[Cp Baherwani]

count function gives the number of rows in a group/table.
"select count(*) from employee"
gives the total number of rows (employees) in the employee table.

"select count(*), department from employee group by department"
gives the number of employees in each department.

[Sreenivasan M]

thanks vishwanath and chadra prakash

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

"Think Mad",
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In particular, your display name must be a first and a last name separated by a space character, and must not be obviously fictitious.

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