How do we count rows using older versions of Hibernate (~2009)?

Question

For example, if we have a table Books, how would we count total number of book records with hibernate?

Accepted Answer

For older versions of Hibernate (<5.2):

Assuming the class name is Book:

```
return (Number) session.createCriteria("Book")
                  .setProjection(Projections.rowCount())
                  .uniqueResult();
```

It is at least a `Number`, most likely a `Long`.

Solution