sys.sysmessages contains 11514 error messages that are translated into 22 languages. Thus, it contains 253308 records in total. select count(distinct error ) cnt_error , -- 11514 count(distinct msglangid) cnt_lang , -- 22 count(distinct error ) * count(distinct msglangid) cnt_error_times_cnt_lang, -- 253308 count(* ) cnt_total -- 253308 from dbo.sysmessages;