Display the number of entries in a channel

Question

I would like to display the total number of entries for a channel and nothing else is required to be displayed.

Is there a more efficient way to do this than the following?

{exp:channel:entries channel="products"}
  {if count == total_results}
    {count}
  {/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Answer 1

Use the built-in Stats module:

{exp:stats channel="products"}{total_entries}{/exp:stats}

Or the Query module:

{exp:query sql="SELECT total_entries FROM exp_channels WHERE channel_name = 'products'"} 
{total_entries} 
{/exp:query}

http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/statistics/index.html#total-entries

Answer 2

From performance view is better to use query for this:

{exp:query sql="SELECT count(*) as total_results FROM exmx_channel_titles WHERE channel_id = '2' "} 
total results: {total_results} 
{/exp:query}