diff --git a/dumpling/export/ir_impl.go b/dumpling/export/ir_impl.go
index 4afd2c29e7e14..c99191319bc01 100644
--- a/dumpling/export/ir_impl.go
+++ b/dumpling/export/ir_impl.go
@@ -210,6 +210,7 @@ func (td *tableData) Start(tctx *tcontext.Context, conn *sql.Conn) error {
 	if err = rows.Err(); err != nil {
 		return errors.Annotatef(err, "sql: %s", td.query)
 	}
+	td.SQLRowIter = nil
 	td.rows = rows
 	if td.needColTypes {
 		ns, err := rows.Columns()
@@ -226,17 +227,27 @@ func (td *tableData) Start(tctx *tcontext.Context, conn *sql.Conn) error {
 			td.colTypes = append(td.colTypes, c.DatabaseTypeName())
 		}
 	}
-	td.SQLRowIter = newRowIter(rows, td.colLen)
 
 	return nil
 }
 
 func (td *tableData) Rows() SQLRowIter {
+	// should be initialized lazily since it calls rows.Next() which might close the rows when
+	// there's nothing to read, causes code which relies on rows not closed to fail.
+	if td.SQLRowIter == nil {
+		td.SQLRowIter = newRowIter(td.rows, td.colLen)
+	}
 	return td.SQLRowIter
 }
 
 func (td *tableData) Close() error {
-	return td.SQLRowIter.Close()
+	if td.SQLRowIter != nil {
+		// will close td.rows internally
+		return td.SQLRowIter.Close()
+	} else if td.rows != nil {
+		return td.rows.Close()
+	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (td *tableData) RawRows() *sql.Rows {
@@ -351,16 +362,21 @@ func newMultiQueriesChunk(queries []string, colLength int) *multiQueriesChunk {
 func (td *multiQueriesChunk) Start(tctx *tcontext.Context, conn *sql.Conn) error {
 	td.tctx = tctx
 	td.conn = conn
-	td.SQLRowIter = newMultiQueryChunkIter(td.tctx, td.conn, td.queries, td.colLen)
 	return nil
 }
 
 func (td *multiQueriesChunk) Rows() SQLRowIter {
+	if td.SQLRowIter == nil {
+		td.SQLRowIter = newMultiQueryChunkIter(td.tctx, td.conn, td.queries, td.colLen)
+	}
 	return td.SQLRowIter
 }
 
 func (td *multiQueriesChunk) Close() error {
-	return td.SQLRowIter.Close()
+	if td.SQLRowIter != nil {
+		return td.SQLRowIter.Close()
+	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (*multiQueriesChunk) RawRows() *sql.Rows {
diff --git a/dumpling/tests/basic/run.sh b/dumpling/tests/basic/run.sh
index 4eae4d9b90d80..42b71689d9ee6 100644
--- a/dumpling/tests/basic/run.sh
+++ b/dumpling/tests/basic/run.sh
@@ -154,3 +154,11 @@ export GO_FAILPOINTS="github.com/pingcap/tidb/dumpling/export/SetIOTotalBytes=re
 run_dumpling -B "test_db" -L ${DUMPLING_OUTPUT_DIR}/dumpling.log
 cnt=$(grep "IOTotalBytes=" ${DUMPLING_OUTPUT_DIR}/dumpling.log | grep -v "IOTotalBytes=0" | wc -l)
 [ "$cnt" -ge 1 ]
+
+export GO_FAILPOINTS=""
+export DUMPLING_TEST_PORT=4000
+echo "Test for empty query result, should success."
+run_sql "drop database if exists test_db;"
+run_sql "create database test_db;"
+run_sql "create table test_db.test_table (a int primary key);"
+run_dumpling --sql "select * from test_db.test_table" --filetype csv > ${DUMPLING_OUTPUT_DIR}/dumpling.log