Zero, One, Close Enough

Kendra Little points out a columnstore optimization which leaves a strange execution plan as a result:

I have a very simple query. It’s running against a table with a nonclustered columnstore index.

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pt.FirstNameByBirthDate_1966_2015;

GO

The query returns one row, as expected. Here’s my count:

For the record, that is the correct number of rows in the table. Here’s where things get weird. In the actual execution plan, the columnstore index returns zero rows.

Yes, this is really the actual execution plan. I’m not tricking you, I promise.

Click through for the answer.