Is there any way to know how many records a data reader returns, without
having to read each one and increment a counter?

I am creating an ASP.NET 2.0 project in C#.

I need to read data from the first record, if there is only one and count
them if there is more than one.  The code that I have written looks like this:

dr = cd.ExecuteReader();
if (dr.Read())
{
        intPatientCount=1;
        strPatNo = Convert.ToString(dr["pat_no"]);  // Store the pat_no in
case there is only one
        while (dr.Read())
        {
               intPatientCount++;
         }
}
dr.Close();

It works, but it's not very elegant or efficient.  Can anyone suggest a
better way?

Thanks,
Helen