oracle - if (select count(column) from table) > 0 then

Question

I need to check a condition. i.e:

if (condition)> 0 then
  update table
else do not update
end if

Do I need to store the result into a variable using select into?

e.g:

declare valucount integer
begin
  select count(column) into valuecount from table
end
if valuecount > o then
  update table
else do 
  not update

Answer 1

You cannot directly use a SQL statement in a PL/SQL expression:

SQL> begin
  2     if (select count(*) from dual) >= 1 then
  3        null;
  4     end if;
  5  end;
  6  /
        if (select count(*) from dual) >= 1 then
            *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-06550: line 2, column 6:
PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "SELECT" when expecting one of the following:
...
...

You must use a variable instead:

SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL>
SQL> declare
  2     v_count number;
  3  begin
  4     select count(*) into v_count from dual;
  5
  6     if v_count >= 1 then
  7             dbms_output.put_line('Pass');
  8     end if;
  9  end;
 10  /
Pass

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Of course, you may be able to do the whole thing in SQL:

update my_table
set x = y
where (select count(*) from other_table) >= 1;

It's difficult to prove that something is not possible. Other than the simple test case above, you can look at the syntax diagram for the IF statement; you won't see a SELECT statement in any of the branches.