Simple check for SELECT query empty result

Question

Hi. Can anyone point out how to check if a select query returns non empty result set?

For example I have next query:

SELECT * FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?;

Should I do something like next:

ISNULL(SELECT * FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?)

to test if result set is not empty?

Answer 1

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?)
 BEGIN
   --DO STUFF HERE

 END

Answer 2

SELECT count(*) as count FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?;

test if count == 0 .

More baroquely:

select case when (SELECT count(*) as count FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?) = 0 then 'No rows, bro!' else 'You got data!" end as stupid_message;

Answer 3

I agree with Ed B. You should use EXISTS method but a more efficient way to do this is:

IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?)
BEGIN
   --DO STUFF HERE

END

HTH

Answer 4

Use @@ROWCOUNT:

SELECT * FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?;

IF @@ROWCOUNT > 0 
   -- do stuff here.....

According to SQL Server Books Online:

Returns the number of rows affected by the last statement. If the number of rows is more than 2 billion, use ROWCOUNT_BIG.

Answer 5

try:

SELECT * FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?;

IF @@ROWCOUNT=0
BEGIN
    PRINT 'no rows!'
END

Answer 6

To summarize the below posts a bit:

If all you care about is if at least one matching row is in the DB then use exists as it is the most efficient way of checking this: it will return true as soon as it finds at least one matching row whereas count, etc will find all matching rows.

If you actually need to use the data for processing or if the query has side effects, or if you need to know the actual total number of rows then checking the ROWCOUNT or count is probably the best way on hand.

Answer 7

SELECT COUNT(1) FROM service s WHERE s.service_id = ?