Check whether a table contains rows or not sql server 2005

Question

How to Check whether a table contains rows or not sql server 2005?

Answer 1

For what purpose?

• Quickest for an IF would be IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Table)...
• For a result set, SELECT TOP 1 1 FROM Table returns either zero or one rows
• For exactly one row with a count (0 or non-zero), SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Table

Answer 2

Also, you can use exists

select case when exists (select 1 from table)            then 'contains rows'            else 'doesnt contain rows'         end 

or to check if there are child rows for a particular record :

select * from Table t1 where exists( select 1 from ChildTable t2 where t1.id = t2.parentid) 

or in a procedure

if exists(select 1 from table) begin  -- do stuff end