Re: Count massively faster than select on same query, why?!?!

[Bob Field]

The use of SELECT * necessitates reading every column from the table. It is a generally accepted opinion that you should not use the SELECT * in general for a variety of reasons including performance, security, etc. You are better off listing explicitly exactly those columns you need to retrieve information from. MySQL will only do the work necessary to present the information requested, and will optimize this process to the extent possible. Therefore asking for less information is likely to be more efficient than asking for everything.