We present a complex analytic proof of the Pila–Wilkie theorem for subanalytic sets. In particular, we replace the use of $C^{r}$-smooth parametrizations by a variant of Weierstrass division. As a consequence we are able to apply the Bombieri–Pila determinant method directly to analytic families without limiting the order of smoothness by a $C^{r}$ parametrization. This technique provides the key inductive step for our recent proof (in a closely related preprint) of the Wilkie conjecture for sets definable using restricted elementary functions. As an illustration of our approach we prove that the rational points of height $H$ in a compact piece of a complex-analytic set of dimension $k$ in $\mathbb{C}^{m}$ are contained in $O(1)$ complex-algebraic hypersurfaces of degree $(\log H)^{k/(m-k)}$. This is a complex-analytic analog of a recent result of Cluckers, Pila, and Wilkie for real subanalytic sets.

We prove that for p-optimal fields (a very large subclass of p-minimal fields containing all the known examples) a cell decomposition theorem follows from methods going back to Denef’s paper [7]. We derive from it the existence of definable Skolem functions and strong p-minimality. Then we turn to strongly p-minimal fields satisfying the Extreme Value Property—a property which in particular holds in fields which are elementarily equivalent to a p-adic one. For such fields K, we prove that every definable subset of K × Kd whose fibers over K are inverse images by the valuation of subsets of the value group is semialgebraic. Combining the two we get a preparation theorem for definable functions on p-optimal fields satisfying the Extreme Value Property, from which it follows that infinite sets definable over such fields are in definable bijection iff they have the same dimension.