Determine number of records availble in a ThingSpeak channel

Using the REST API, I would like to be able to query for the number of records of data stored in a ThingSpeak channel before reading that data.

Is there a way to do this?

[Vinod]

Can you tell me more about your application? Say you have the number of records stored, what do you intend to do with this data?

[DL KA]

I need to make decisions based on the number of records available before I read the quantity of records I need to operate on.

Answer 1

[Vinod]

I'd recommend the best solution is to retrieve data based on date range. Again, keep in mind the response will contain at most 8000 points. So, you will want to pick your date range based on how frequently your channel is updated. See more details here.

[DL KA]

Not really an answer to my question. Would have preferred you to simply say that you don't have a direct way to determine the number of records available from the REST API.

[Vinod]

Actually, the REST API doc I linked to does take you to this page - reading the last entry in a channel. If you look at the JSON example there, you will see "entry_id" is a returned paramter. While I do mention it here as a direct response to your question, I strongly suggest not relying on the last entry_id. I was trying to point you to a better solution based on your decription.

[Christopher Stapels]

You could also update the channel and look at the response. ThingSpeak returns the number of records in the channel However, after you update the channel to see if there is anything in it, you would have to clear it again or it would look like there are records in the channel. :)