[postgis-users] Number of features

[YC Nyon]

In Arcview, it's stated that a polygon theme has 287 features. After
converting it into Postgis,
it has 84 rows.
My intention now is to tell the user how many features that theme has.
I could do a count row using PHP-Postgresql "Select count(trans_id) from
<tablename>"
but seems not the 'correct' way.
Check with the documentation, but can't seem to get the correct Postgis
function to do the above.

Also, can anyone explain why Postgis has 84 rows and ArcView has 287. It's a
multipolygon theme.

TIA
Nyon