Is it possible to execute the same query i'm using inside an IF EXISTS statement without repeat-CodePudding

This really silly question just popped out of my mind out of curiosity; i'm still learning how to write better code in SQL and i just found myself in the situation where i have to check if the result of a query exists and then, if that was true, execute the same exact query to create a new table. The code is working and considering i'm not dealing with large amounts of data i have no problems of computation times but...it's simply ugly and i would like to make it more...appealing?

This is the code i'm refering to:

[...]

IF EXISTS  (SELECT  *value*, COUNT(*) AS Repetitions       
           FROM  *table*         
           GROUP BY *value*
           HAVING COUNT(*) > 1)

   SELECT *value*, COUNT(*) AS Repetitions
   INTO dbo.*newtable*
   FROM  *table*         
   GROUP BY *data*
   HAVING COUNT(*) > 1

ELSE

[...]

CodePudding user response：

Doing an exists first is unecessary.

Simply do

select <columns> into NewTable
From Table
where criteria;

if @@rowcount=0 
begin
  drop table NewTable;
end
else
begin
  /* Actions if table created */
end