T-SQL get row count before TOP is applied - sql-server

Question

I have a SELECT that can return hundreds of rows from a table (table can be ~50000 rows). My app is interested in knowing the number of rows returned, it means something important to me, but it actually uses only the top 5 of those hundreds of rows. What I want to do is limit the SELECT query to return only 5 rows, but also tell my app how many it would have returned (the hundreds). This is the original query:
SELECT id, a, b, c FROM table WHERE a < 2
Here is what I came up with - a CTE - but I don't feel comfortable with the total row count appearing in every column. Ideally I would want a result set of the TOP 5 and a returned parameter for the total row count.
WITH Everything AS
(
SELECT id, a, b, c FROM table
),
DetermineCount AS
(
SELECT COUNT(*) AS Total FROM Everything
)
SELECT TOP (5) id, a, b, c, Total
FROM Everything
CROSS JOIN DetermineCount;
Can you think of a better way?
Is there a way in T-SQl to return the affected row count of a select top query before the top was applied? ##rowcount would return 5 but I wonder if there is a ##rowcountbeforetop sort of thing.
Thanks in advance for your help.
** Update **
This is what I'm doing now and I kind of like it over the CTE although CTEs as so elegant.
-- #count is passed in as an out param to the stored procedure
CREATE TABLE dbo.#everything (id int, a int, b int, c int);
INSERT INTO #everything
SELECT id, a, b, c FROM table WHERE a < 2;
SET #count = ##rowcount;
SELECT TOP (5) id FROM #everything;
DROP TABLE #everything;

Answer 1

Here's a relatively efficient way to get 5 random rows and include the total count. The random element will introduce a full sort no matter where you put it.
SELECT TOP (5) id,a,b,c,total = COUNT(*) OVER()
FROM dbo.mytable
ORDER BY NEWID();

Answer 2

Assuming you want the top 5 ordering by id ascending, this will do it with a single pass through your table.
; WITH Everything AS
(
SELECT id
, a
, b
, c
, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id ASC) AS rn_asc
, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id DESC) AS rn_desc
FROM <table>
)
SELECT id
, a
, b
, c
, rn_asc + rn_desc - 1 AS total_rows
FROM Everything
WHERE rn_asc <= 5

Answer 3

** Update **
This is what I'm doing now and I kind of like it over the CTE although CTEs as so elegant. Let me know what you think. Thanks!
-- #count is passed in as an out param to the stored procedure
CREATE TABLE dbo.#everything (id int, a int, b int, c int);
INSERT INTO #everything
SELECT id, a, b, c FROM table WHERE a < 2;
SET #count = ##rowcount;
SELECT TOP (5) id FROM #everything;
DROP TABLE #everything;