Oracle sql return true if exists question

Question

How do I check if a particular element exists in a table - how can I return true or false?

I have a table that has

• user_id
• user_password

Answer 1

Oracle RDBMS does not have boolean data type, you can only use boolean variables in PL/SQL.

If you simply want to return strings 'TRUE' and 'FALSE' you can do this..

SELECT 'TRUE'  FROM DUAL WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 'x' FROM  table WHERE user_id = 'id')
UNION
SELECT 'FALSE' FROM DUAL WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 'x' FROM  table WHERE user_id = 'id')

I like @DCookie's query though.