Questions on Fetching with Conditions

Hi,

I have a couple of questions:

1) Is there another way to fetch row count without using the raw row  
SQL or the obj.objects().count() method?

e.g.

String SQL = "select count(class_id) as count from clazz where use_id  
= 1";
NSArray objects = EOUtilities.rawRowsForSQL(ec, "Clazz", SQL, null);
NSDictionary dict = (NSDictionary)objects.objectAtIndex(0);
String count = dict.objectForKey("COUNT");

or

int count = student.classes().count();

The first one, I have to hard code the SQL.  The second one fetches  
all of the classes to count.  I do not wish to do that.

2) Is there another way to fetch "one" (limit 1) to-many relationship  
entity object sorted by a certain column in ascending/decending order  
without using the raw row SQL or having to fetch all of the objects  
using the obj.objects() and then sort?

e.g.

String SQL = "select * from clazz where user_id = '1' order by  
registration_date ASC limit 1";
....
....
..

or

NSArray classes = student.classes();
...
.. (and then sort or get the last index of objects or whatever...)
..

Thanks!

Satoru