Just wondering quite recent solution for Thread 1147165
may be altered to be used for self-referential table ( id , parent_id )

select mytable.id,mytable.descript,step1.CountChildren from mytable ;
inner join ;
(select parent_id , count(*) as CountChildren from mytable group by parent_id ) step1 ;
on mytable.id = step1.parent_id 

Statement above gives a syntax error

TIA
Michael