“SELECT TOP 1 1” VS “IF EXISTS(SELECT 1”

Question

I have some .NET code that checks for the existence of a SQL record at a moderately-high interval. I am looking to make this check as \"cheap\" as possible.

I\'m wo

Answer 1

I would definitely go for the 2nd option:

SELECT TOP 1 1
FROM   BigTable
WHERE  SomeColumn = 200 

The execution plan is simpler and efficient even when I/O and CPU numbers are mostly the same.