COUNT_BIG

Transact-SQL Reference

Transact-SQL Reference

COUNT_BIG

Returns the number of items in a group. COUNT_BIG works like the COUNT function. The only difference between them is their return values: COUNT_BIG always returns a bigint data type value. COUNT always returns an int data type value.

Syntax

COUNT_BIG ( { [ ALL | DISTINCT ] expression } | * )

Arguments

ALL

Applies the aggregate function to all values. ALL is the default.

DISTINCT

Specifies that COUNT_BIG returns the number of unique nonnull values.

expression

Is an expression of any type except uniqueidentifier, text, image, or ntext. Aggregate functions and subqueries are not permitted.

*

Specifies that all rows should be counted to return the total number of rows in a table. COUNT_BIG(*) takes no parameters and cannot be used with DISTINCT. COUNT_BIG(*) does not require an expression parameter because, by definition, it does not use information about any particular column. COUNT_BIG(*) returns the number of rows in a specified table without eliminating duplicates. It counts each row separately, including rows that contain null values.

Return Types

bigint

Remarks

COUNT_BIG(*) returns the number of items in a group, including NULL values and duplicates.

COUNT_BIG(ALL expression) evaluates expression for each row in a group and returns the number of nonnull values.

COUNT_BIG(DISTINCT expression) evaluates expression for each row in a group and returns the number of unique, nonnull values.

See Also

int, bigint, smallint, and tinyint