Database Internals

How relational databases actually store, index, and count data — and how to reason about query performance from first principles.

COUNT(*) vs COUNT(1): Which One Performs Best?

Apr 2, 20249 min read0 views

Database Internals

COUNT(*) vs COUNT(1): Which One Performs Best?

When counting rows in a table, we reach for the count function out of habit. But the count function accepts several kinds of arguments, such as count(1), count(*), count(field), and so on. So which form of count delivers the best performance?

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