In a Finder window on the Mac, when you select a certain number of files or folders, an indication at the top of the window tells you that xx items are currently selected out of a total of yy (in that particular directory.)
I wish something similar could be implemented in eMC, besides the current (ww/zz) for unread/total mails. Concrete case: out of a search resulting in 3000+ mails, I quickly spotted (by their dates) those I needed to know the exact number of. However there were maybe 40, 50 or 60 of them, moreover mixed with other, irrelevant ones from the same period. Selecting them wasn’t a problem, whether or not by using the column of check boxes, but it would have been very tedious to start counting them.
[I see that a similar request was made 11½ years ago…]