i need to get a row count on a large table. it appears that
  select count(*) from <table>;
always does a table scan, whether i have an index or not, and that is too 
slow.

so i found this:
  select reltuples from pg_class where relname = '<table>';

this is nice and fast, but not all that accurate at any given time. but, i 
*did* notice that it is pretty accurate if i run analyze just before.

so, i am wondering if analyze also does a table scan, in which case i am 
back to where i started. it *seems* to run fairly quickly, even on a large 
table, but i am just wall-clocking all of this.

or any other ideas on counting rows are welcome.

thanks.
pg


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