What would be returned when the record is empty?

[Chit Ming Chong]

Dear All,

I need to check whether a record has been created. If not, I will create it using JDBC. I was wondering what would the ResultSet contain if no record is returned? Would it be null? or something else? I would have tested it however I don't have a compiler handy at this moment

Currently, i am doing it using count(*) to see it return 0 or not.

Thanks for your help.

[Paul Sturrock]

If you are using count(*) you know that your ResultSet will always contain 1 record. If you do a "Select * from whatever" and the table is empty, so is your ResultSet.

[Chit Ming Chong]

Thanks Paul

so the answer is an emoty resultset instead of null?

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Chit,
Queries never return null resultsets. So yes, you would get an empty resultset back.

That said, I prefer the select count(*) approach. It better expresses your intent by showing you are only using the count, not the data. It can also be faster depending on your indexes and schema.

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

Chit Ming, When ever a select query doesn't return any rows
rs.next() returns false when you call it for the first time itself.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Right. Noting that the 0 returned by select count(*) is a row with a value.