SQL if no rows are returned do this

Question

I have a select statement and I want to say if this select statement does not return any rows then put a '' in every cell. How do I do this?

Answer 1

select a, b, c from t
if @@rowcount = 0
    select '' as a, '' as b, '' as c

But make sure you understand that '' may have a different datatype than columns a, b, and c.

Answer 2

Try this -

IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT 'x' FROM <TABLE> .... )
BEGIN
    -- Your logic goes here
END