The correct way to determine the number of records in a ResultSet is to iterate through the ResultSet and count the rows. The provided code fragment `int totRows=0; while(rs.next()){ totRows++; }` correctly iterates through the ResultSet, counting each row, and thus provides the accurate count of records. Methods like `getRowCount()` or `getRowId()` are not defined for ResultSetMetaData or ResultSet in this context, making them incorrect for this purpose.