CASE statement in SQLite query

Question

Why this query doesn't work? :( I tried to replace nested IF statement "...SET lkey = IF(lkey >= 11, lkey - 5, IF(lkey > 5, lkey + 2,lkey))"

UPDATE pages
SET lkey = CASE lkey WHEN lkey >= 11 THEN
        lkey - 5
    ELSE
        CASE lkey WHEN lkey > 5 THEN
            lkey + 2
        ELSE
            lkey
        END
    END,
    rkey = CASE lkey WHEN lkey >= 11 THEN
        rkey - 5
    ELSE
        CASE rkey WHEN rkey < 11 THEN
            rkey + 2
        ELSE
            rkey
        END
    END
WHERE rkey > 5 AND
    lkey < 12;

Answer 1

The syntax is wrong in this clause (and similar ones)

    CASE lkey WHEN lkey > 5 THEN
        lkey + 2
    ELSE
        lkey
    END

It's either

    CASE WHEN [condition] THEN [expression] ELSE [expression] END

or

    CASE [expression] WHEN [value] THEN [expression] ELSE [expression] END

So in your case it would read:

    CASE WHEN lkey > 5 THEN
        lkey + 2
    ELSE
        lkey
    END

Check out the documentation (The CASE expression):

http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html

Answer 2

Also, you do not have to use nested CASEs. You can use several WHEN-THEN lines and the ELSE line is also optional eventhough I recomend it

CASE 
   WHEN [condition.1] THEN [expression.1]
   WHEN [condition.2] THEN [expression.2]
   ...
   WHEN [condition.n] THEN [expression.n]
   ELSE [expression] 
END