How Trustworthy Is Sys.partitions As A Means For Counting Rows In A Table?

Hi all,
I have the following function:




Code Block
create function udf_CountRows(@pTableName sysname)
returns int
as
begin
declare @ret int

select @ret = SUM(p.rows)
from sys.partitions p
inner join sys.objects o
on p.object_id = o.object_id
and o.[name] = 'Well'

return @ret
end





Can I trust sys.partitions to always return the correct value or does it suffer the same issue as sysindexes prior to SQL2005?

Thanks
Jamie