Count documents (Go)

Counts documents in a collection using filter clauses.

Exact counting of the number of documents is a slow, expensive operation. If the document count exceeds the upper limit set by you or by the API, an indication of this limit will be returned instead of the full count.

If you need to count large numbers of documents, consider using the method to estimate count or the DataStax Bulk Loader instead.

Ready to write code? See the examples for this method to get started. If you are new to the Data API, check out the quickstart.

Result

Returns an integer indicating the exact number of documents that match the specified filter.

If the count exceeds the caller-provided or API-set upper bound, the client returns ErrTooManyDocumentsToCount.

Parameters

Use the CountDocuments method, which belongs to the Collection type.

Method signature
func (c *Collection) CountDocuments(
  ctx context.Context,
  f CollectionFilter,
  upperBound int,
  opts ...options.CollectionCountDocumentsOption
) (int, error)
Name Type Summary

ctx

context.Context

The context for the operation.

f

CollectionFilter

An object that defines filter criteria using the Data API filter syntax. The method only finds documents that match the filter criteria. Filters can improve performance by reducing the number of documents that the Data API processes.

You must use & to escape any . or & in field names in the filter clause. You cannot use & to escape any other characters. For more information, see Work with . and & in field names (Go).

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Go).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

upperBound

int

The maximum number of documents to count.

If the actual number of documents exceeds this value or exceeds the limit set by the Data API, the client will return an error.

opts

…​options.CollectionCountDocumentsOption

Optional. A builder to generate options for this operation. See Methods of the CollectionCountDocumentsOption builder for more details.

Methods of the CollectionCountDocumentsOption builder
Method Summary

UpdateAPIOptions(v …​APIOption)

Optional. General API options for this operation, including the timeout.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to count documents in a collection.

Count documents that match a filter

You can use a filter to count documents that match specific criteria.

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Go).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra"
	"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/filter"
	"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/options"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Get an existing collection
	client := astra.NewClient(
		options.API().SetEnvironment(options.EnvironmentHCD),
	)

	database := client.Database(
		"API_ENDPOINT",
		options.API().
			SetUsernamePasswordTokenProvider(
				"USERNAME",
				"PASSWORD",
			).
			SetKeyspace("KEYSPACE_NAME"),
	)

	collection := database.Collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

	// Count documents
	count, err := collection.CountDocuments(
		ctx,
		filter.And(
			filter.Eq("is_checked_out", false),
			filter.Lt("number_of_pages", 300),
		),
		500,
	)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(count)
}

Count all documents

To attempt to count all documents, use an empty filter.

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra"
	"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/options"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Get an existing collection
	client := astra.NewClient(
		options.API().SetEnvironment(options.EnvironmentHCD),
	)

	database := client.Database(
		"API_ENDPOINT",
		options.API().
			SetUsernamePasswordTokenProvider(
				"USERNAME",
				"PASSWORD",
			).
			SetKeyspace("KEYSPACE_NAME"),
	)

	collection := database.Collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

	// Count documents
	count, err := collection.CountDocuments(ctx, nil, 500)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(count)
}

Client reference

For more information, see the client reference.

Was this helpful?

Give Feedback

How can we improve the documentation?

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2026 | Privacy policy | Terms of use Manage Privacy Choices

Apache, Apache Cassandra, Cassandra, Apache Tomcat, Tomcat, Apache Lucene, Apache Solr, Apache Hadoop, Hadoop, Apache Pulsar, Pulsar, Apache Spark, Spark, Apache TinkerPop, TinkerPop, Apache Kafka and Kafka are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation or its subsidiaries in Canada, the United States and/or other countries. Kubernetes is the registered trademark of the Linux Foundation.

General Inquiries: Contact IBM