In SQL, the CASE statement evaluates a list of conditions and returns one of multiple possible result expressions.
In some ways, the SQL CASE statement is kind of similar to the IF...ELSE statement in that it allows us to check for a given condition and return a different result depending on the outcome.
Most major RDBMSs support the NULLIF() operator, which returns NULL if both of its arguments are equivalent. If the arguments not equivalent, NULLIF() returns the first argument.
NULLIF() is a SQL-standard feature (it’s included in the ISO/IEC 9075 specification).
Most major RDBMSs support the COALESCE() operator, which returns the first non-null value from its list of arguments.
COALESCE() is a SQL-standard feature (it’s included in the ISO/IEC 9075 specification).
Sometimes you might need to search a database table for only those rows that contain at least one number in a given column.
Technically, numbers can be represented by words and other symbols, but here “number” means “numerical digit”.
Below are examples of how to find rows that contain at least one number in various SQL based DBMSs.
Continue readingHere are five options for using SQL to return only those rows that have the minimum value within their group.
These examples work in most major RDBMSs, including MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and SQL Server.
Continue readingHere are three examples of using SQL to find and select the row with the minimum value in a given column.
The examples work in most major RDBMSs, including MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, and SQL Server.
Continue readingHere are five options for using SQL to return only those rows that have the maximum value within their group.
These examples work in most major RDBMSs, including MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and SQL Server.
Continue readingMost of the major RDBMSs have a function that enables us to return our query results as a comma separated list.
That is, we can use such a function to convert each row into a separate list item, within a comma separated list.
Below are examples of how to achieve this in some of the more popular RDBMSs.
Continue readingIn SQL, the columns information schema view, which returns information about columns, is an ISO standard view that is supported by most of the major RDBMSs. You can use this view to get information about a column’s data type.
Most of the major RDBMs also provide other methods for getting column information.
Here are examples of getting the data type of a column in various SQL databases.
Continue readingMost of the major RDBMSs have functions that enable us to format numbers with commas as either the group separator, or the decimal separator.
Some RDBMSs also output certain numeric data types with commas in the relevant place.
Below are examples of formatting numbers with commas in some of the more popular DBMSs.
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