SQLite, SELECT and max function - c++

Question

Why does the following code gives me the different result when using max function? I thought that it should return SQLITE_DONE in this case too.
#include <boost/scope_exit.hpp>
#include <sqlite3.h>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
sqlite3* db;
int rc = sqlite3_open(":memory:", &db);
BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_ALL(&db)
{
sqlite3_close(db);
};
if (rc != SQLITE_OK)
{
std::cerr << "Can't open database."
<< " Error code: " << rc
<< " Error description: " << sqlite3_errmsg(db);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
char* errMsg;
rc = sqlite3_exec(db, "CREATE TABLE foo (bar INTEGER)", NULL, NULL, &errMsg);
if (rc != SQLITE_OK)
{
std::cerr << "Can't create \"foo\" table."
<< " Error code: " << rc
<< " Error description: " << errMsg;
sqlite3_free(errMsg);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
{
sqlite3_stmt* stmt;
rc = sqlite3_prepare_v2(db, "SELECT bar FROM foo WHERE bar = 1", -1, &stmt, NULL);
if (rc != SQLITE_OK)
{
std::cerr << "Can't prepare SELECT statement."
<< " Error code: " << rc
<< " Error description: " << sqlite3_errmsg(db);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_ALL(&stmt)
{
sqlite3_finalize(stmt);
};
rc = sqlite3_step(stmt);
std::cout << rc << std::endl; // 101 -- SQLITE_DONE
}
{
sqlite3_stmt* stmt;
rc = sqlite3_prepare_v2(db, "SELECT max(bar) FROM foo WHERE bar = 1", -1, &stmt, NULL);
if (rc != SQLITE_OK)
{
std::cerr << "Can't prepare SELECT statement."
<< " Error code: " << rc
<< " Error description: " << sqlite3_errmsg(db);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
BOOST_SCOPE_EXIT_ALL(&stmt)
{
sqlite3_finalize(stmt);
};
rc = sqlite3_step(stmt);
std::cout << rc << std::endl; // 100 -- SQLITE_ROW
}
}
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When you are using GROUP BY, you get one group for each unique value of the grouped column(s).
If there does not exist any row to be grouped, there are no groups, and the query does not return any rows.
When you are using an aggregate function like max() without GROUP BY, the entire table becomes a single group.
This happens even if the table is empty, i.e., you then get a single group that aggregates over the empty set.
If you don't want to get a result when there are not bar = 1 rows, add GROUP BY bar.