On 5 Sep 2017, at 9:21pm, Cecil Westerhof <cldwester...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I want to know the number of teas I have in stock. For this I use: > SELECT COUNT(Tea) > FROM teaInStock > > Tea cannot be NULL, so this is the same as: > SELECT COUNT(*) > FROM teaInStock > > But I find the first more clear. > I almost always see the second variant. Is this because it is more > efficient, or are people just ‘lazy’? Your guess is right ! To do COUNT(*) SQLite has to retrieve all the rows. To do COUNT(value) has to retrieve all the rows and test the value of each row to make sure it is not NULL. Also, SQLite has a specific piece of code which makes COUNT(*) more efficient than counting the values. However, unless you have a big database, the difference for your case may be small. If you find COUNT(Tea) easier to understand perhaps you should use that one. Simon. _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
