Re: [SQL] Always getting back a row, even with no results

Unfortunately this is a constraint of the environment; not good design, but SQL seems like it should be the simplest place to solve this.

I tried your example; it seems the ordering is required, otherwise the results always include the null. So the below works for anyone who finds this in the future. Thanks


select
            id
from
            my_table
where
            cat = 2
 
UNION
 
select
            null as id
ORDER BY
            id ASC
LIMIT
    CASE
            WHEN (
                select
                        count(*)
                from
                        my_table
                where
                        cat = 2
                ) > 0
            THEN (
                select count(*) from my_table where cat=2
                )
            ELSE
                1
    END;