MySQL：仅获取结果集的计数

Question

I am using MVC with PHP/MySQL.

Suppose I am using 10 functions with different queries for fetching details from the database.
But at other times I may want to get only the count of the result that will be returned by the query.
What is the standard way to handle such situation.
Should I write 10 more functions which duplicate almost whole query and return only the count.
Or
Should I always return the count also with the result set
Or
I can pass a flag to indicate that the function should return count only, and then based on the flag I will dynamically generate the (select part of) query.
Or
Is there a better way?

Answer 1

If you want only number of rows matched certain criteria, you shouldn't use a count of the result, but another query that select only count(*) instead.

If you need both data and it's count, why don't you just use count() on the resulting array?

another way is to use some class that can return both data and it;s count, but not different classes for the each 10 queries but one single database access class.