How do I perform an IF…THEN in an SQL SELECT?

Question

How do I perform an IF...THEN in an SQL SELECT statement?

For example:

SELECT IF(Obsolete = 'N' OR InStock = 'Y' ? 1 : 0) AS Saleable, * FROM Product

Answer 1

From this link, we can uderstand IF THEN ELSE in T-SQL :

IF EXISTS(SELECT *
          FROM   Northwind.dbo.Customers
          WHERE  CustomerId = 'ALFKI')
  PRINT 'Need to update Customer Record ALFKI'
ELSE
  PRINT 'Need to add Customer Record ALFKI'

IF EXISTS(SELECT *
          FROM   Northwind.dbo.Customers
          WHERE  CustomerId = 'LARSE')
  PRINT 'Need to update Customer Record LARSE'
ELSE
  PRINT 'Need to add Customer Record LARSE' 

Isn't this good enough for T-SQL ?

Answer 2

From SQL Server 2012 you can use the IIF function for this.

SELECT IIF(Obsolete = 'N' OR InStock = 'Y', 1, 0) AS Salable, *
FROM   Product 

This is effectively just a shorthand (albeit not standard SQL) way of writing CASE.

I prefer the conciseness when compared with the expanded CASE version.

Both IIF() and CASE resolve as expressions within a SQL Statement and can only be used in well defined places.

The CASE expression cannot be used to control the flow of execution of Transact-SQL statements, statement blocks, user-defined functions, and stored procedures.

If your needs can not be satisfied by these limitations (for example a need to return differently shaped result sets dependant on some condition) then SQL Server does also have a procedural IF Keyword.

IF @IncludeExtendedInformation = 1 
  BEGIN 
      SELECT A,B,C,X,Y,Z 
      FROM   T 
  END 
ELSE 
  BEGIN 
      SELECT A,B,C 
      FROM   T 
  END 

Care must sometimes be taken to avoid parameter sniffing issues with this approach however.

Answer 3

Use CASE. Something like this.

SELECT Salable =
        CASE Obsolete
        WHEN 'N' THEN 1
        ELSE 0
    END

Answer 4

If you're inserting results into a table for the first time, rather than transferring results from one table to another, this works in Oracle 11.2g:

INSERT INTO customers (last_name, first_name, city)
    SELECT 'Doe', 'John', 'Chicago' FROM dual
    WHERE NOT EXISTS 
        (SELECT '1' from customers 
            where last_name = 'Doe' 
            and first_name = 'John'
            and city = 'Chicago');

Answer 5

  SELECT IIF(Obsolete = 'N' OR InStock = 'Y',1,0) AS Saleable, * FROM Product

Answer 6

Use a CASE statement:

SELECT CASE
       WHEN (Obsolete = 'N' OR InStock = 'Y')
       THEN 'Y'
       ELSE 'N'
END as Available

etc...