I have a select statement where I want to make select conditional like this
IFNULL(field_a,field_a,feild_b)
so that it checks field a if a is null then the select would be field b
is that possible ?
I have a select statement where I want to make select conditional like this
IFNULL(field_a,field_a,feild_b)
so that it checks field a if a is null then the select would be field b
is that possible ?
Use COALESCE:
SELECT COALESCE(field_a, field_b)
COALESCE is an ANSI standard function that returns the first non-null value from the list of columns specified, processing the columns from left to right. So in the example, if field_a
is null, field_b
value will be displayed. However, this function will return NULL if there is no non-null value from the columns specified.
It's supported on MySQL (I've used it on 4.1), SQL Server (since v2000), Oracle 9i+...
and another way to skin that cat (flexible for not just null comparisons)...
select if(field_a is not null, field_a, field_b) from...
Yes, but it's just two parameters:
IFNULL(field_a,field_b)
If field_a
is not null, it will be returned. Otherwise field_b
will be returned.
Reference: IFNULL