How many Sonic the Hedgehog characters are there

About 40 are main with countless extras. Best to check Sonic wikia http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Characters
There's heaps depending on what section of the Sonic franchise you're looking for.
There are approximately 45 sonic the hedgehog characters. These are:
Amy Rose, Jet the hawk, Wave the swallow, Storm the albatross, Big the cat,
Blaze the cat, Chaos, Charmy bee, Vector the crocodile, Espio the chameleon, Mighty the armadillo, Heavy and Bomb, Cream the rabbit, Cheese the Chao, Vanilla the rabbit, Docter Eggman, Eggman Nega, Eggrobo, E-100 Alpha, E-102 Gamma, E-123 Omega, E-101 Beta, E-103 Delta, E-104 Epsilon, E-105 Zeta, E- 121 Phi, Fang the sniper, Gizoids, Knuckles the echidna, Maria Robotnik, Metal Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, Omochao, Orbot and Cubot, the President, Proffeser Gerald Robotnik, Rouge the bat, Shadow the hedgehog, Silver the hedgehog, Sonic the hedgehog, and Tikal the echidna.

If there are any more, please add them for me. k?