Path: dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu!spool.maxwell.syr.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.vmunix.org!newsfeed.cw.net!cw.net!news-FFM2.ecrc.de!peer-uk.news.demon.net!kibo.news.demon.net!mutlu.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!not-for-mail From: "Tony Rogerson" Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory Subject: Re: counting rows Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:46:20 +0100 Lines: 25 Message-ID: References: <1143753100.408985.38260@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: torver-adsl.demon.co.uk X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 1143791173 3106 80.177.180.177 (31 Mar 2006 07:46:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:46:13 +0000 (UTC) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.1830 X-Priority: 3 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.3790.1830 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Xref: dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu comp.databases.theory:37701 Number 2 will be best because you are effectively storing the aggregate instead of the server having to count the number of rows in the table which would require IO. Tony. -- Tony Rogerson SQL Server MVP http://sqlserverfaq.com - free video tutorials wrote in message news:1143753100.408985.38260@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com... > Consider the tables USERS and PICTURES. When retrieving the number of > pictures from a user there are two ways: > > 1) I count them from pictures table. > 2) I pick it directly from a field "numPictures" in table users. > > How are you used to do this? Which is better? > Thanks >