python - How to count rows with SELECT COUNT(*) with SQLAlchemy?

Question

I'd like to know if it's possible to generate a SELECT COUNT(*) FROM TABLE statement in SQLAlchemy without explicitly asking for it with execute(). If I use:

session.query(table).count()

then it generates something like:

SELECT count(*) AS count_1 FROM
    (SELECT table.col1 as col1, table.col2 as col2, ... from table)

which is significantly slower in MySQL with InnoDB. I am looking for a solution that doesn't require the table to have a known primary key, as suggested in Get the number of rows in table using SQLAlchemy.

Answer 1

Query for just a single known column:

session.query(MyTable.col1).count()