Question

I want to construct a SELECT statement with a conditional IF.

Like, IF there is no records with the language code 'Swedish':

SELECT * FROM Entries WHERE Language = 'Swedish'

THEN use 'English'

SELECT * FROM Entries WHERE Language = 'English'

How would I construct this statement using MSSQL?

Thanks,

Stefan

Answer 1

Naively:

SELECT *
FROM Entries
WHERE Language = 'Swedish' 

UNION ALL

SELECT *
FROM Entries
WHERE Language = 'English' 
    AND NOT EXISTS (
        SELECT *
        FROM Entries
        WHERE Language = 'Swedish' 
    )

or:

SELECT *
FROM Entries
WHERE Language = 'Swedish' 
    OR (Language = 'English' 
        AND NOT EXISTS (
            SELECT *
            FROM Entries
            WHERE Language = 'Swedish' 
        )
    )