:man_page: mongoc_collection_estimated_document_count

mongoc_collection_estimated_document_count()
============================================

Synopsis
--------

.. code-block:: c

   int64_t
   mongoc_collection_estimated_document_count (mongoc_collection_t *collection,
                                               const bson_t *opts,
                                               const mongoc_read_prefs_t *read_prefs,
                                               bson_t *reply,
                                               bson_error_t *error);

Parameters
----------

* ``collection``: A :symbol:`mongoc_collection_t`.
* ``opts``: A :symbol:`bson:bson_t`, ``NULL`` to ignore.
* ``read_prefs``: A :symbol:`mongoc_read_prefs_t` or ``NULL``.
* ``reply``: A location for an uninitialized :symbol:`bson:bson_t` to store the command reply, ``NULL`` to ignore. If not ``NULL``, ``reply`` will be initialized.
* ``error``: An optional location for a :symbol:`bson_error_t <errors>` or ``NULL``.

.. |opts-source| replace:: ``collection``

.. include:: includes/read-opts.txt
* ``skip``: An int specifying how many documents matching the ``query`` should be skipped before counting.
* ``limit``: An int specifying the maximum number of documents to count.

Description
-----------

This functions executes a count query on ``collection``. In contrast with :symbol:`mongoc_collection_count_documents()`, the count returned is *not* guaranteed to be accurate.

Errors
------

Errors are propagated via the ``error`` parameter.

Returns
-------

-1 on failure, otherwise the number of documents counted.

Example
-------

.. code-block:: c

  #include <mongoc.h>
  #include <bcon.h>
  #include <stdio.h>

  static void
  print_count (mongoc_collection_t *collection, bson_t *query)
  {
     bson_error_t error;
     int64_t count;
     bson_t* opts = BCON_NEW ("skip", BCON_INT64(5));

     count = mongoc_collection_estimated_document_count (
        collection, opts, NULL, NULL, &error);
     bson_destroy (opts);

     if (count < 0) {
        fprintf (stderr, "Count failed: %s\n", error.message);
     } else {
        printf ("%" PRId64 " documents counted.\n", count);
     }
  }

See Also
--------

:symbol:`mongoc_collection_count_documents()`