Whats the best way to get total # of records in a mysql table with php?

Question

Whats the most efficient way of selecting total number of records from a large table? Currently, Im simply doing

$result = mysql_query(\"SELECT id FROM table         


        

Answer 1

Just wanted to note that SHOW TABLE STATUS returns a Rows column, though I can't speak to its efficiency. Some light Googling turns up reports of slowness in MySQL 4 over two years ago. Might make for interesting time trials.

Also note the InnoDB caveat regarding inaccurate counts.