SQL: Return “true” if list of records exists?

Question

An alternative title might be: Check for existence of multiple rows?

Using a combination of SQL and C# I want a method to return true if all products in a list exist

Answer 1

If you are using SQL Server 2008, I would create a stored procedure which takes a table-valued parameter. The query should then be of a particularly simple form:

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_CheckAll 
    (@param dbo.ProductTableType READONLY)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT CAST(1 AS bit) AS Result
    WHERE (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT ProductID) FROM @param)
        = (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT p.ProductID) FROM @param AS p
           INNER JOIN Products 
               ON p.ProductID = Products.ProductID)
END

I changed this to return a row, as you seem to require. There are other ways to do this with a WHERE NOT EXISTS (LEFT JOIN in here WHERE rhs IS NULL):

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_CheckAll 
    (@param dbo.ProductTableType READONLY)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT CAST(1 AS bit) AS Result
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (
        SELECT * FROM @param AS p
        LEFT JOIN Products 
            ON p.ProductID = Products.ProductID
        WHERE Products.ProductID IS NULL
    )
END