title: How to obtain number of rows in Cassandra table
body: <p>This is a super basic question but it's actually been bugging me for days. Is there a good way to obtain the equivalent of a <code>COUNT(*)</code> of a given table in Cassandra? </p>
  
  <p>I will be moving several hundreds of millions of rows into C* for some load testing and I'd like to at least get a row count on some sample ETL jobs before I move massive amounts of data over the network.</p>
  
  <p>The best idea I have is to basically loop over each row with Python and auto increment a counter. Is there a better way to determine (or even estimate) the row size of a C* table? I've also poked around Datastax Ops Center to see if I can determine the row size there. If you can, I don't see how it's possible.</p>
  
  <p>Anyone else needed to get a <code>count(*)</code> of a table in C*? If so, how'd you go about doing it? </p>