set recordsetname = databasename.openrecordset(SQLString)
    if recordsetname.bof <> true and recordsetname.eof <> true then
    'do something
    end if

2 questions :

1. the above test can evaluate to false incorrectly but only extremely rarely (I've had one lurking in my code and it failed today, I believe for the first time in 5 years of daily use-that's how I found it). Why very occasionally will one of bof/eof be true for a non-empty recordset. It seems so rare that I wonder why it occurs at all.

2. Is this a foolproof replacement:

   if recordsetname.bof <> true or recordsetname.eof <> true then
   

Edit to add details of code :

Customers have orders, each order begins with a BeginOrder item and end with an EndOrder item and in between are the items in the order.

The SQL is:

' ids are autoincrement long integers '
SQLString = "select * from Orders where type = OrderBegin or type = OrderEnd"           

Dim OrderOpen as Boolean
OrderOpen = False

Set rs = db.Openrecordset(SQLString)
If rs.bof <> True And rs.eof <> True Then
    myrec.movelast
    If rs.fields("type").value = BeginOrder Then
         OrderOpen = True
    End If
End If

If OrderOpen F False Then
    'code here to add new BeginOrder Item to Orders table '
End If

ShowOrderHistory 'displays the customer's Order history '

In this case which looks this this

BeginOrder
Item a
Item b
...
Item n
EndOrder

BeginOrder
Item a
Item b
...
Item n
EndOrder

BeginOrder
Item a
item b
...
Item m

BeginOrder     <----should not be there as previous order still open