Check if a table is empty or not in MySQL using EXISTS

The following is the syntax to check whether a table is empty or not using MySQL EXISTS −

SELECT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM yourTableName);

Example

First, let us create a table. The query to create a table is as follows −

mysql> create table ReturnDemo    -> (    -> Id int,    -> Name varchar(10)    -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.79 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows −

mysql> insert into ReturnDemo values(100,'Larry'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec) mysql> insert into ReturnDemo values(101,'Bob'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.28 sec) mysql> insert into ReturnDemo values(102,'Sam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from ReturnDemo;

Output

+------+-------+ | Id   | Name | +------+-------+ | 100 | Larry | | 101 | Bob | | 102 | Sam | +------+-------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to check if MySQL table is empty or not −

mysql> select exists(select 1 from ReturnDemo) AS Output;

Output

+--------+ | Output | +--------+ | 1 | +--------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The output 1 tells that the MySQL table isn’t empty.