Problem with SELECT INTO Query

Question

Why am I always getting 0 for returnvalue in the following query?
create or replace
PACKAGE BODY MyPKG AS
PROCEDURE SelectCount
   returnvalue       OUT      INTEGER
AS
  BEGIN
select COUNT(*) from MyTable into returnvalue;
IF( SQL%ROWCOUNT >= 1 )
  THEN
    returnvalue := 1;
  ELSE
    returnvalue := 0;
  END IF; 
dbms_output.put_line('returnvalue: ' || returnvalue);
END SelectCount;
END MyPKG ;

Answer 1

Hi,
When you use an aggregate function, such as COUNT, without a GROUP BY clause, then the query is guaranteed to return exactly 1 row, regadless of whether there are any rows in the table or not.
Perhaps you meant:
create or replace
PACKAGE BODY MyPKG AS
PROCEDURE SelectCount
   returnvalue       OUT      INTEGER
AS
  BEGIN
      select COUNT(*) from MyTable into returnvalue;
      dbms_output.put_line('returnvalue: ' || returnvalue);
  END SelectCount;
END MyPKG ;
that is, simply lose the IF block.