(sql) how can I use count() method when data type is text?

Question

select count(category) from list where category like \'action\'

above is a query i want to run. However, when I run that query, I am getting data

Answer 1

To answer the question in the title for future googlers you can use

SELECT COUNT(CASE
               WHEN some_text_column IS NOT NULL THEN 1
             END)
FROM   some_table

In your case though (as pointed out in the comments by @hvd) the WHERE category LIKE 'action' predicate ensures that any NULL values will be excluded anyway so it is safe to replace it with COUNT(*)

Moreover you almost certainly should not be using the text datatype for this. This is a deprecated datatype that was intended for holding LOB (Large Object) data over 8000 bytes.

Strings like "action" definitely do not fit this description!