[Editor's note: array at from dot pl had pointed out that count() is a cheap operation; however, there's still the function call overhead.]

If you want to run through large arrays don't use count() function in the loops , its a over head in performance,  copy the count() value into a variable and use that value in loops for a better performance.

Eg:

// Bad approach

for($i=0;$i<count($some_arr);$i++)
{
    // calculations
}

// Good approach

$arr_length = count($some_arr);
for($i=0;$i<$arr_length;$i++)
{
    // calculations
}

If you are on PHP 7.2+, you need to be aware of "Changelog" and use something like this:

<?php
$countFruits = is_array($countFruits) || $countFruits instanceof Countable ? count($countFruits) : 0;
?>

You can organize your code to ensure that the variable is an array, or you can extend the Countable so that you don't have to do this check.

I actually find the following function more useful when it comes to multidimension arrays when you do not want all levels of the array tree.

// $limit is set to the number of recursions
<?php
function count_recursive ($array, $limit) {
    $count = 0;
    foreach ($array as $id => $_array) {
        if (is_array ($_array) && $limit > 0) {
            $count += count_recursive ($_array, $limit - 1);
        } else {
            $count += 1;
        }
    }
    return $count;
}
?>

My function returns the number of elements in array for multidimensional arrays subject to depth of array. (Almost COUNT_RECURSIVE, but you can point on which depth you want to plunge).

<?php
  function getArrCount ($arr, $depth=1) {
      if (!is_array($arr) || !$depth) return 0;
         
     $res=count($arr);
         
      foreach ($arr as $in_ar)
         $res+=getArrCount($in_ar, $depth-1);
      
      return $res;
  }
?>

A function of one line to find the number of elements that are not arrays, recursively :

function count_elt($array, &$count=0){
  foreach($array as $v) if(is_array($v)) count_elt($v,$count); else ++$count;
  return $count;
}

For a Non Countable Objects

$count = count($data);
print "Count: $count\n";

Warning:  count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in example.php on line 159

#Quick fix is to just cast the non-countable object as an array..  

$count = count((array) $data);
print "Count: $count\n";

Count: 250