Chad Callihan doesn’t need to wait for the query’s end credits sequence:
When checking for the existence of a value or values in a table, typically, the whole table does not need to be read. The goal is to obtain more of a true or false answer, whether a criteria is met or not. If the criteria is met with the first few records then there’s no need to read on. Nonetheless, you may come across scripts written to unnecessarily retrieve the complete count of a value in a table. Let’s compare the performance difference between using COUNT(*) and using “IF EXISTS” when checking a table for values.
One’s going to give you a full scan and the other will give you a semi-join. Read on to see what the practical effect of this is.