Why would someone put `where 1=1` in a query?

I came across a view in our database today where the first statement in the where clause was where 1 = 1. Shouldn't this return true for every record? Why would someone write this if it isn't filtering any records?

Some dynamic query builders include this condition so that any "real" conditions can be added with an AND without doing a check like if (first condition) 'WHERE' else 'AND'.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#763, answer score: 41