arcpy - GetCount_management() from ArcGIS ToolValidator?

We want to check if feature classes are empty in the ToolValidator.

When you call GetCount_managment() and background processing is on, there is a popup from our validation step.

Is there a different method to find if a feature class is empty, other than using GetCount_management?

Answer

Try a search cursor?

class ToolValidator:

    def __init__(self):
        import arcpy

        self.params = arcpy.GetParameterInfo()

    def initializeParameters(self):
        fc = self.params[0]
        rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(fc)
        if rows.next(): #At least one feature
            #Do something
        else:
            #Do something else
        return