GlideAggregate when to use if vs while in loop

[corbettbrasing1]

I'd like to get some clarification on when its appropriate to use an if   or while loop get you use getAggregate();

The documentation has examples of both where there is an if and then others where there is a while loop.   Even in this article Count and Sum and Avg and Min and Max, Oh My! the 2 examples he uses to do the same thing, one has an if, the other has a while loop.

Is glide aggregate actually returning a result set that you need to loop through to constitute a while loop or is it a result set with 1 record?

[Chuck Tomasi · Accepted solution]

If you are using orderBy(), groupBy(), or distinct, then you will have multiple results and need to use a while(). If not, you use an if since there will only be one record to retrieve. You won't break anything if you use a while instead of if since the loop will only run once.

[corbettbrasing1]

Thanks Chuck!   How do I request a documentation update to say what you just said.   I have looked in the documentation and it does not say what you just said anywhere in there.

[sndangibbard]

You should use a while loop if you are using the GlideAggregate method groupBy()

https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/api_doc?v=helsinki&id=r_GlideAggregate-groupBy_String

As you will getting back a set of several results, one for each group of records. If you are not using groupBy then you will get a single GA result back so you do not need to loop through but can use an if.