Should I use COUNT(*) to get all the records in MySQL?

Whenever you want all the values like not null for a column then use count(*). This is faster than using count() method.

The syntax to use count(*) is as follows −

select count(*) as anyVariableName from yourTableName;

To understand the above concept, let us first create a table. The query to create a table is as follows −

mysql> create table CountingDemo
   -> (
   -> BookId int
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.60 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows −

mysql> insert into CountingDemo values(100);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

mysql> insert into CountingDemo values();
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

mysql> insert into CountingDemo values(200);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

mysql> insert into CountingDemo values(300);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)

mysql> insert into CountingDemo values();
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from CountingDemo;

Output

+--------+
| BookId |
+--------+
|    100 |
|   NULL |
|    200 |
|    300 |
|   NULL |
+--------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Suppose your column does not have null value then count(*) and count() gives same result.

But in our example BookId column is having some null values. In this case, both count(*) and count() gives different results.

Here is the query that use count(*) −

mysql> select count(*) as AllValue from CountingDemo;

Output

+----------+
| AllValue |
+----------+
|        5 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Her is the query that use count() and gives another result since it won’t consider counting null values. The query is as follows −

mysql> select count(BookId) as AllvalueWhichisNotnull from CountingDemo;

Output

+------------------------+
| AllvalueWhichisNotnull |
+------------------------+
|                      3 |
+------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)