How many records from a SELECT statement?

Hi,

In several applications I need to draw a percentage bar to monitor the status of large SELECT statements.
One of the applications works with a SELECT statement that is more or less a black box, so I cannot predict acuratelly how many records will be SELECTed.

Does anyone know a way to acuratelly predict the number of records that will be selected when given a SELECT statement? (i.e. instead of all the data I just want COUNT(*) using the same  table(s), conditions, etc)

One way to do it is to create a VIEW:

CREATE VIEW tmp_view AS <select statement>; SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tmp_view;
DROP VIEW tmp_view;

Any one know a better solution?

        (preferably without creating objects in the database)

Thanks

        Erwin

-- 
Erwin Dondorp			Xirion bv, Software and Consultancy
erwin_at_xirion.nl			Burg. Verderlaan 15X
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