the best way to know that a table isn't empty

Hi,

I'm looking for the most efficient way to know if a table isn't empty. So far, I just queried it, gathered the result and checked if it was empty or not.

Is there a more efficient way to do it?

Regards,

-jj. :)

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM daTable

alternatively,

SELECT acolumn FROM daTable LIMIT 1

select count(*) from datable is best for myisam tables and can be horrible for innodb, but select acolumn from datable limit 1 is very good for myisam tables and best for innodb tables.

so use the second form.

how about

Code:

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select top 1 myColumn from myTable

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Is there any difference over cout(*)?

yes, there is a difference

also, TOP doesn't work in mysql

:)