Sqlite3 How to get number of rows in table without reading all the rows?

Can some shed some light on hoe to get the number of rows (using php) in a table without actually having to read all the rows? I am using squlite to log data periodically and need to know the table row count before I actually access specific data?

Apart from reading all rows and incrementing a counter, I cannot seem to work out how to do this quickly (it's a large database) rather simple requirement? I have tried the following php code but it only returns a boolean response rather that th开发者_StackOverflow中文版e actual number of rows?

$result = $db->query('SELECT count(*) FROM mdata');

Normally the SELECT statement will also return the data object (if there is any?)

Just use

LIMIT 1

That should work!! It Limits the result to ONLY look at 1 row!!

if you have record set then you get number or record by mysql_num_rows(#Record Set#);