Hmmm, two things (one's a problem, one's not): When I run the command, the number it returns is 114, but I know in this particular case it's 57 (half the number). Is it returning the shape and transform nodes of each object or something? Not really a problem, since I can just divide the number in half for my purposes, just curious what it's doing under the hood.
Secondly, how can I store the result in a variable? Rather than simply setting the value of the variable based on what I know, how can I make it grab the result and store it automatically?