Question: I'm having some trouble with this statement, owing no doubt to my ignorance of what is returned from this select statement:

```
declare @myInt as INT
set @myInt = (select COUNT(*) from myTable as count)

if(@myInt <> 0) 
begin
   print 'there's something in the table'
end

```

There are records in myTable, but when I run the code above the print statement is never run. Further checks show that myInt is in fact zero after the assignment above. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I assumed that a select count would return a scalar that I could use above?

Answer: 
```
select @myInt = COUNT(*) from myTable

```
```
Declare @MyInt int
Set @MyInt = ( Select Count(*) From MyTable )

If @MyInt > 0
Begin
    Print 'There''s something in the table'
End

```

I'm not sure if this is your issue, but you have to esacpe the single quote in the print statement with a second single quote. While you can use SELECT to populate the variable, using SET as you have done here is just fine and clearer IMO. In addition, you can be guaranteed that Count(\*) will never return a negative value so you need only check whether it is greater than zero.