What is the difference between getblockCOUNT and getblockNUMBER ???

[gigabytecoin]

When interacting with the bitcoin client, you have the option of passing two (different?) commands to it that seemingly always return the exact same result.

getblockcount === getblocknumber

Or does it?

And why?

[1715364450]

1715364450

[JoelKatz]

Their code is identical in the client, other than the slight difference in the help text. One says it "[r]eturns the number of blocks in the longest block chain" the other says it "[r]eturns the block number of the latest block in the longest block chain".

Value getblockcount(const Array& params, bool fHelp)
{
    if (fHelp || params.size() != 0)
        throw runtime_error(
            "getblockcount\n"
            "Returns the number of blocks in the longest block chain.");

    return nBestHeight;
}

Value getblocknumber(const Array& params, bool fHelp)
{
    if (fHelp || params.size() != 0)
        throw runtime_error(
            "getblocknumber\n"
            "Returns the block number of the latest block in the longest block chain.");

    return nBestHeight;
}

[theymos]

They are the same. getblocknumber is obsolete.

It used to be that getblocknumber would return the highest block number, while getblockcount would return the total number of blocks. Confusingly, this behavior was switched when getblocknumber was made obsolete, so getblockcount now actually gives the highest block number.

The total number of blocks is different from the highest block number because the genesis block is block #0.

[gigabytecoin]

Thanks for those explanations everyone.