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rosejr
Starting Member
12 Posts |
 Posted - 2007-08-15 : 14:57:58
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| Is there anything wrong with using... count(*) from tables when all you are concerned is to check if rows exists or not. Then after getting the count(*) in a variable, you are simply checking the @variable > 1 for an if ... else statement?Are there any other suggestion to accomplish this? |
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spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2007-08-15 : 15:03:20
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| use exists if you just want to check for existance_______________________________________________Causing trouble since 1980blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp |
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pootle_flump
1064 Posts |
Posted - 2007-08-15 : 18:08:05
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| To expand on spirit1's excellent suggestion - EXISTS is optimised to stop searching the table as soon as it finds the first row that matches whatever criteria you use. COUNT(*) will count every row that meets the criteria which at worst will be a scan of the entire table. |
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rosejr
Starting Member
12 Posts |
Posted - 2007-08-16 : 09:57:57
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| Thanks guys that is what I was looking for. I was trying to avoid table scans. |
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Using count(*) for flag indicators