Best way to test if a row exists in a MySQL table

Question

I\'m trying to find out if a row exists in a table. Using MySQL, is it better to do a query like this:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS total FROM table1 WHERE ...
         


        

Answer 1

Suggest you not to use Count because count always makes extra loads for db use SELECT 1 and it returns 1 if your record right there otherwise it returns null and you can handle it.