Question

I need to display all tables that have zero records.

I tried,

select * from user_all_tables where (select count(*) from user_all_tables)=0;

But it doesn’t seem to work.
How should I go about redesigning this query?
Thanks.

Answer 1

If all of your tables are analyzed, you can check the column num_rows of table user_tables.

Otherwise, you will need PL/SQL to make this work. This will output all tables of your current user without records (use all_tables if you need tables of other users):

Set Serveroutput On;

Declare
  cnt PLS_INTEGER;
Begin
  For c In ( Select table_name From user_tables ) Loop
    Execute Immediate 'Select Count(*) From "' || c.table_name || '" where rownum=1'
            Into cnt;
    If( cnt = 0 ) Then
      dbms_output.put_line( c.table_name );
    End If;
  End Loop;
End;