Count(*) , group by with multiple columns from multiple tables involved

Question

Hi all,
I am relatively new to SQL.
Currently I have these few requirements, to display quite a number of fields from 3 tables for display of report.
In my query I need to:
1.) count(*)
2.) select quite a number of fields from table 1,2,3
However when count(*) is used, grouped by has to be used to.
How do I actually use group by with so many columns to be selected?
I have actually used the query below, but the count(*) returns 1, the correct output should be 3 instead.
select count(*), table1.col1, table1.col2, table1.col3, table2.col3, table2.col4, table2.col6, table3.col1, table3.col4, table3.col5
from table1, table2, table3
where
<conditions>........................
group by table1.col1, table1.col2, table1.col3, table2.col3, table2.col4, table2.col6, table3.col1, table3.col4, table3.col5
I know this group by statement looks very unrefined. How can I select multiple fields from different tables, and yet get the count(*) correctly?
Thank you so much for your time.

Answer 1

Hmm yes it actually does return count as 1 for each row. But there are 3 rows returned. E.g.
ctr table1.col1 table1.col2 ..........
1 value1 value1
1 value2 value3
1 value3 value4
If I put the count(*) outside, it returns 3 , the correct output
ctr
3
select count(*) from
select table1.col1, table1.col2, table1.col3, table2.col3, table2.col4, table2.col6, table3.col1, table3.col4, table3.col5
from table1, table2, table3
where
<conditions>
group by table1.col1, table1.col2, table1.col3, table2.col3, table2.col4, table2.col6, table3.col1, table3.col4, table3.col5
Thus I was wondering if it was the group by of multiple colns that resulted in the count stucked at value 1.