is it possible to test if a database-query returned data or not? i'm not interested in the result - data, only if there where one or more rows matching the query...

It's easier than you think. If you have a ZSQL Method "sqlMyQuery": <dtml-if sqlMyQuery> ...do stuff... </dtml-if> That's it.

another simple question: is there a more simple possibility to get only the first query-match than:

<dtml-in dataquery size=1 orphan=1>

... </dtml-in>

errr... this isn't simple enough? you could always do: <dtml-in sqlMyQuery> <dtml-if sequence-start> ...do stuff... </dtml-if> </dtml-in> But that's more complicated, I think.