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Asked: 2026-05-10T20:59:48+00:00

Is it possible to do a simple count(*) query in a PHP script while

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Is it possible to do a simple count(*) query in a PHP script while another PHP script is doing insert…select… query?

The situation is that I need to create a table with ~1M or more rows from another table, and while inserting, I do not want the user feel the page is freezing, so I am trying to keep update the counting, but by using a select count(\*) from table when background in inserting, I got only 0 until the insert is completed.

So is there any way to ask MySQL returns partial result first? Or is there a fast way to do a series of insert with data fetched from a previous select query while having about the same performance as insert…select… query?

The environment is php4.3 and MySQL4.1.

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1 Answer

  1. If you’re doing a single INSERT…SELECT, then no, you won’t be able to get intermediate results. In fact this would be a Bad Thing, as users should never see a database in an intermediate state showing only a partial result of a statement or transaction. For more information, read up on ACID compliance.

    That said, the MyISAM engine may play fast and loose with this. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen MyISAM commit some but not all of the rows from an INSERT…SELECT when I’ve aborted it part of the way through. You haven’t said which engine your table is using, though.

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