title: how do I make a select which always returns zero rows
body: <p>I want to determine if a column exists in a table for any jdbc driver.</p>
  
  <p>In order to know the columns in a table, I have to make a query to the table and then get the ResultSetMetaData for the info, but this is pretty expensive in like 99% of times.</p>
  
  <p>In mysql I have:</p>
  
  <p><code>SELECT * FROM <i>tablename</i> LIMIT 0,0</code></p>
  
  <p>In Intersystems caché I have:</p>
  
  <p><code>SELECT TOP 0 * FROM <i>tablename</i></code></p>
  
  <p>But, for example, in JavaDB I cannot apply any limit at all.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any generic query that would give me the same result and still be fair with the DB performance?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>