Can Count(*) ever return null? [duplicate]

Question

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Does COUNT(*) always return a result?

Is it possible in any scenario for the Count() function to return NULL?

Gules

Discussed previously Does COUNT(*) always return a result?. never NULL: zero or no result at all – Glyptograph

Here's an interesting related question – Pammie

Answer 1

No, it will only return a zero (or non-zero) result. SqlServer will not return null.

Heaves

Surely you mean "or non-zero and non-null"?? – Shirelyshirey

@cyberwiki - good point :-) Would be quite pointless if it always returned zero! – Heaves

There are some cases where there is no result returned (if your select has a GROUP BY and there is no group). Depending on how you use your query, for instance if you use some ORM, this no result might be mapped to a null. – Leix

Answer 2

According to the MSDN page, no.

That said:

For return values greater than 2^31-1, COUNT produces an error. Use COUNT_BIG instead.

Parlor

Answer 3

No.

This will be 0

select count(*)
where 0=1

This will be 1

select count(*)

Rufusrug

Answer 4

No it returns a zero if the table does not have any records in the table

Baum

Answer 5

No. If the table or specific field being counted are empty it will return zero.

Dafodil