How to COUNT rows within EntityFramework without loading contents?

Question

Query syntax:

var count = (from o in context.MyContainer
             where o.ID == '1'
             from t in o.MyTable
             select t).Count();

Method syntax:

var count = context.MyContainer
            .Where(o => o.ID == '1')
            .SelectMany(o => o.MyTable)
            .Count()

Both generate the same SQL query.

I think you want something like

var count = context.MyTable.Count(t => t.MyContainer.ID == '1');

(edited to reflect comments)

As I understand it, the selected answer still loads all of the related tests. According to this msdn blog, there is a better way.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2011/01/31/using-dbcontext-in-ef-feature-ctp5-part-6-loading-related-entities.aspx

Specifically

using (var context = new UnicornsContext())

    var princess = context.Princesses.Find(1);

    // Count how many unicorns the princess owns 
    var unicornHaul = context.Entry(princess)
                      .Collection(p => p.Unicorns)
                      .Query()
                      .Count();
}

This is my code:

IQueryable<AuctionRecord> records = db.AuctionRecord;
var count = records.Count();

Make sure the variable is defined as IQueryable then when you use Count() method, EF will execute something like

select count(*) from ...

Otherwise, if the records is defined as IEnumerable, the sql generated will query the entire table and count rows returned.

Well, even the SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Table will be fairly inefficient, especially on large tables, since SQL Server really can't do anything but do a full table scan (clustered index scan).

Sometimes, it's good enough to know an approximate number of rows from the database, and in such a case, a statement like this might suffice:

SELECT 
    SUM(used_page_count) * 8 AS SizeKB,
    SUM(row_count) AS [RowCount], 
    OBJECT_NAME(OBJECT_ID) AS TableName
FROM 
    sys.dm_db_partition_stats
WHERE 
    OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID('YourTableNameHere')
    AND (index_id = 0 OR index_id = 1)
GROUP BY 
    OBJECT_ID

This will inspect the dynamic management view and extract the number of rows and the table size from it, given a specific table. It does so by summing up the entries for the heap (index_id = 0) or the clustered index (index_id = 1).

It's quick, it's easy to use, but it's not guaranteed to be 100% accurate or up to date. But in many cases, this is "good enough" (and put much less burden on the server).

Maybe that would work for you, too? Of course, to use it in EF, you'd have to wrap this up in a stored proc or use a straight "Execute SQL query" call.

Marc

Use the ExecuteStoreQuery method of the entity context. This avoids downloading the entire result set and deserializing into objects to do a simple row count.

   int count;

    using (var db = new MyDatabase()){
      string sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM MyTable where FkId = {0}";

      object[] myParams = {1};
      var cntQuery = db.ExecuteStoreQuery<int>(sql, myParams);

      count = cntQuery.First<int>();
    }