*Detailed explanation of the difference between COUNT(column) and COUNT() in SQL**
In SQL queries, the count()
function is used for data aggregation, but there is a subtle but important difference between the two commonly used forms count(column)
and count(*)
.
COUNT(column): exclude NULL values
count(column)
syntax counts the number of non-NULL values in the specified column, effectively ignoring rows with NULL column values. This feature is useful when you need to determine the number of non-null values in a column.
*COUNT(): Contains NULL value**
In contrast, count(*)
counts the number of rows in the result set, including rows containing NULL values. Unlike count(column)
, it treats NULL as a valid count item. This feature is useful when you need to get the total number of rows regardless of whether a specific column contains missing data.
Example illustrating the difference
Consider a table named #bla
containing the following records:
create table #bla(id int,id2 int) insert #bla values(null,null) insert #bla values(1,null) insert #bla values(null,1) insert #bla values(1,null) insert #bla values(null,1) insert #bla values(1,null) insert #bla values(null,null)
Use count(column)
to run the following query:
select count(id),count(id2) from #bla
The result is:
<code>3 2</code>
Among them, count(id)
only counts three non-NULL values in the id
column, while count(id2)
counts two non-NULL values in the id2
column.
However, replacing count(*)
with count(column)
results in 7, as shown in the following query:
select count(*) from #bla
In this case, count(*)
contains seven rows from the table, regardless of whether they contain NULL values. This distinction between counting non-NULL values and counting rows becomes particularly important when dealing with datasets that contain missing data.
The above is the detailed content of COUNT(column) vs. COUNT(*): When Should I Use Which in SQL?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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