How do I get the size of a java.sql.ResultSet?

Do a SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ... query instead.

OR

int size =0;
if (rs != null) 
{
  rs.last();    // moves cursor to the last row
  size = rs.getRow(); // get row id 
}

In either of the case, you won't have to loop over the entire data.

Well, if you have a ResultSet of type ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY you want to keep it that way (and not to switch to a ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE or ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE in order to be able to use .last()).

I suggest a very nice and efficient hack, where you add a first bogus/phony row at the top containing the number of rows.

Example

Let's say your query is the following

select MYBOOL,MYINT,MYCHAR,MYSMALLINT,MYVARCHAR
from MYTABLE
where ...blahblah...

and your output looks like

true    65537 "Hey" -32768 "The quick brown fox"
false  123456 "Sup"    300 "The lazy dog"
false -123123 "Yo"       0 "Go ahead and jump"
false       3 "EVH"    456 "Might as well jump"
...
[1000 total rows]

Simply refactor your code to something like this:

Statement s=myConnection.createStatement(ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY,
                                         ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
String from_where="FROM myTable WHERE ...blahblah... ";
//h4x
ResultSet rs=s.executeQuery("select count(*)as RECORDCOUNT,"
                           +       "cast(null as boolean)as MYBOOL,"
                           +       "cast(null as int)as MYINT,"
                           +       "cast(null as char(1))as MYCHAR,"
                           +       "cast(null as smallint)as MYSMALLINT,"
                           +       "cast(null as varchar(1))as MYVARCHAR "
                           +from_where
                           +"UNION ALL "//the "ALL" part prevents internal re-sorting to prevent duplicates (and we do not want that)
                           +"select cast(null as int)as RECORDCOUNT,"
                           +       "MYBOOL,MYINT,MYCHAR,MYSMALLINT,MYVARCHAR "
                           +from_where);

Your query output will now be something like

1000 null     null null    null null
null true    65537 "Hey" -32768 "The quick brown fox"
null false  123456 "Sup"    300 "The lazy dog"
null false -123123 "Yo"       0 "Go ahead and jump"
null false       3 "EVH"    456 "Might as well jump"
...
[1001 total rows]

So you just have to

if(rs.next())
    System.out.println("Recordcount: "+rs.getInt("RECORDCOUNT"));//hack: first record contains the record count
while(rs.next())
    //do your stuff

ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();
int rowcount = 0;
if (rs.last()) {
  rowcount = rs.getRow();
  rs.beforeFirst(); // not rs.first() because the rs.next() below will move on, missing the first element
}
while (rs.next()) {
  // do your standard per row stuff
}