When trying to be sensitive to n+1 queries and memory usage, knowing the differences between count, size, and length in ActiveRecord is important. It had been a while since I reviewed the usage, and I wanted to ensure that I hadn’t made some bad assumptions along the way that somehow stuck. The reality is that each method is pretty close to indicating what it will do, with size being the method that will load the data on (or for) you.

count

Back in the old days count was a more sophisticated member of ActiveRecord::Calculations::ClassMethods module. You could pass conditions to the method, or column names… basically a combination where and includes and joins.

The column/distinct counting moved to ActiveRecord::Calculations without all the extra conditionals, joins, and including. Note that you do not need a query to “count”:

irb(main):011:0> Model.count(:special_data) # count Model records with non-nil special_data
   (191.9ms)  SELECT COUNT(`models`.`special_data`) FROM `models`
=> 41828
irb(main):012:0> Model.distinct.count(:special_data) # count Model records with DISTINCT non-nil special_data
   (17.6ms)  SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT `models`.`special_data`) FROM `models`
=> 1909
irb(main):013:0> Model.count # count all records
   (3790.8ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `models`
=> 594383

If you’re just looking for a count of records for a query that has not been loaded, that’s now a member of ActiveRecord::Associations::CollectionProxy.

irb(main):015:0> Model.all.count
   (744.2ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `models`
=> 594383
irb(main):017:0> Model.where('special_data is not null').count
   (24.0ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `models` WHERE (special_data is not null)
=> 41828

length

length will load all of the records indicated by a collection, which might be useful if calling length on an association that you’re going to use the data from anyway, but not if you are throwing that data away. You’ll be wasting time (and memory) on the operation.

irb(main):018:0> Model.where('special_data is not null').length
  Model Load (647.9ms)  SELECT ...
.
.
.
=> 41828

You also can’t call length on a model’s class name, as it is not a collection itself:

irb(main):020:0> Model.length
Traceback (most recent call last):
        1: from (irb):20
NoMethodError (undefined method `length' for #<Class:0x00007f810ed6ec28>)

size

size also requires a collection, but does not attempt to load that collection, instead wrapping a COUNT around its query:

irb(main):022:0> Model.where('special_data is not null').count
   (22.8ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `models` WHERE (special_data is not null)
=> 41828

Like with length, this doesn’t work:

irb(main):023:0> Model.size
Traceback (most recent call last):
        1: from (irb):20
NoMethodError (undefined method `size' for #<Class:0x00007f810ed6ec28>)

Conclusion

The behavior of these methods isn’t all that surprising, but sometimes we can let our guard down in Ruby and think of methods as synonyms when they actually have distinct behaviors. This is especially risky if you are working in more than one language or framework and might otherwise gravitate toward a method such as length because it’s second nature elsewhere.