c# - 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 in a table. If it can be done all in SQL that would be preferable. I have written a method that returns whether a single productID exists using the following SQL:

SELECT productID FROM Products WHERE ProductID = @productID

If this returns a row, then the c# method returns true, false otherwise.

Now I'm wondering if I have a list of product IDs (not a huge list mind you, normally under 20). How can I write a query that will return a row if all the product id's exist and no row if one or more product id's does not exist?

(Maybe something involving "IN" like:
SELECT * FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN ('1', '10', '100', 'ABC'))

EDIT:

How the result is expressed is not important to me. Whether the query returns a 1 or 0, an empty resultset or a non-empty one, true or false doesn't matter. I'd prefer the answer that is 1) easy to read and understand and 2) performant

I was envisioning concatenating the list of product id's with the SQL. Obviously this opens the code up to SQL injection (the product id's are actually varchar. in this case the chance is slim but still want to avoid that possibility). So if there is a way around this that would be better. Using SQL Server 2005.

Product ID's are varchar

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2862080/sql-return-true-if-list-of-records-exists

Answer 1

Given your updated question, these are the simplest forms:

If ProductID is unique you want

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100)

and then check that result against 3, the number of products you're querying (this last part can be done in SQL, but it may be easier to do it in C# unless you're doing even more in SQL).

If ProductID is not unique it is

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT ProductID) FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100)

---

When the question was thought to require returning rows when all ProductIds are present and none otherwise:

SELECT ProductId FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100) AND ((SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100))=3)

or

SELECT ProductId FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100) AND ((SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT ProductID) FROM Products WHERE ProductID IN (1, 10, 100))=3)

if you actually intend to do something with the results. Otherwise the simple SELECT 1 WHERE (SELECT ...)=3 will do as other answers have stated or implied.