Why is this an issue?

There are several reasons to avoid using this method:

  1. It is optionally available only for result sets of type ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY. Database drivers will throw an exception if not supported.
  2. The method can be expensive to execute as the database driver may need to fetch ahead one row to determine whether the current row is the last in the result set. The documentation of the method explicitly mentions this fact.
  3. What "the cursor is on the last row" means for an empty ResultSet is unclear. Database drivers may return true or false in this case .

ResultSet.next() is a good alternative to ResultSet.isLast() as it does not have the mentioned issues. It is always supported and, as per specification, returns false for empty result sets.

How to fix it

Refactor your code to use ResultSet.next() instead of ResultSet.isLast(). Be cautious of its different semantics and side effects on cursor positioning in the result set. Verify that your program logic is still valid under these side effects and otherwise adjust it.

Code examples

Noncompliant code example

ResultSet results = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT name, address FROM PERSON");
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
while (results.next() && !results.isLast()) { // Noncompliant
  sb.append(results.getString("name") + ", ");
}
sb.append(results.getString("name"));
String formattedNames = sb.toString();

Compliant solution

ResultSet results = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT name, address FROM PERSON");
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
while (results.next()) { // Compliant, and program logic refactored
  names.add(results.getString("name"));
}
String formattedNames =  names.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(", "));

Resources

Documentation