The equality operation is used to find out whether two values are the same. From the above formula, the SQL interpreter would compare Value1 and Value2. If Value1 and Value2 are the same, the comparison produces a TRUE result. If they are different, the comparison renders FALSE.
The equality operation can be illustrated as follows:
As opposed to equality, to find out if two values are not equal, use the <> operator. Its formula is:
Value1 <> Value2
The <> is a binary operator (like all logical operators) proposed by the international standard (ISO). It is used to compare two values. The values can come from two variables as in Variable1 <> Variable2. Upon comparing the values, if both hold different values, the comparison produces a TRUE. Otherwise, the comparison renders FALSE or a null value.
It can be illustrated as follows:
Notice that the Not Equal operator <> is the opposite to the Equality operator =.
Besides the <> operator of the ISO SQL, Transact-SQL also supports the C language inequal operator, which is represented as !=. It essentially performs the same role as <> and can be used in the same circumstances.
To find out whether one value is lower than another, use the < operator. Its formula is:
Value1 < Value2
The value held by Value1 is compared to that of Value2. As it would be done with other operations, the comparison can be made between two variables, as in Variable1 < Variable2. If the value held by Value1 is lower than that of Value2, the comparison produces a true or positive result.
The Less Than operator "<" can be illustrated as follows:
The Equality and the Less Than operators can be combined to compare two values. This allows you to know if two values are the same or if the first is less than the second. The operator used is <= and its formula is:
Value1 <= Value2
If both Value1 and Value2 are the same, the result is true or positive. If the left operand, in this case Value1, holds a value lower than the second operand, in this case Value2, the result is still true. If the value of Value1 is strictly higher than that of Value, the comparison produces a FALSE result.
A <= operation can be illustrated as follows:
To find out if one value is strictly greater than another, you can use the > operator. Its formula is:
Value1 > Value2
Both operands, in this case Value1 and Value2, can be variables or the left operand can be a variable while the right operand is a constant. If the value on the left of the > operator is greater than the value on the right side or a constant, the comparison produces a true or positive value. Otherwise, the comparison renders false or null.
The > operator can be illustrated as follows:
Notice that the > operator is the opposite to <=.
The greater than and the equality operators can be combined to produce an operator as follows: >=. This is the "greater than or equal to" operator. Its formula is:
Value1 >= Value2
The comparison is performed on both operands: Value1 and Value2. If the value of Value1 and that of Value2 are the same, the comparison produces a true or positive value. If the value of the left operand is greater than that of the right operand, the comparison produces true or positive also. If the value of the left operand is strictly less than the value of the right operand, the comparison produces a false or null result. This can be illustrated as follows:
Notice that the >= operator is the opposite to <.
Transact-SQL supports an operator represented as !>. This means that a value is not greater than the indicated value. In most cases, this is equivalent to the Less Than Or Equal To operator "<=".
Transact-SQL supports one more comparison operator represented as !<. It is used to find out whether one of the operands is less than the other. This operator is equivalent to >=.
With the above formula, we will always let you know what keyword you can use, why, and when. After the expression, you can write the statement in one line. This is the statement that would be executed if/when the Expression of our formula is satisfied. In most cases, you will need more than one line of code to specify the Statement.
As it happens, the interpreter considers whatever comes after the Statement as a unit but only the line immediately after the Expression. To indicate that your Statement covers more than one line, start it with the BEGIN keyword. Then you must use the END keyword to indicate where the Statement ends. In this case, the formula of a conditional statement would appear as follows:
Keyword Expression BEGIN Statement Line 1 Statement Line 2 Statement Line n END
You can still use the BEGIN...END combination even if your Statement covers only one line:
Keyword Expression BEGIN Statement END
Using the BEGIN...END combination makes your code easier to read because it clearly indicates the start and end of the Statement.
Probably the primary comparison you can perform on a statement is to find out whether it is true. This operation is performed using an IF statement in Transact-SQL. Its basic formula is:
IF Condition Statement
When creating an IF statement, first make sure you provide a Condition expression that can be evaluated to produce true or false. To create this Condition, you can use variables and the logical comparison operator reviewed above.
When the interpreter executes this statement, it first examines the Condition to evaluate it to a true result. If the Condition produces true, then the interpreter executes the Statement.
From here to the end of this lesson, all instructions are intended for All Computers:
The IF condition we used above is appropriate when you only need to know if an expression is true. There is nothing to do in other alternatives.
The CASE keyword is used as a conditional operator that considers a value, examines it, and acts on an option depending on the value. The formula of the CASE statement is:
CASE Expression WHEN Value1 THEN Result WHEN Value2 THEN Result WHEN Value_n THEN Result END
In the following example, a letter that represents a student is provided. If the letter is m or M, a string is created as Male. If the value is provided as f or F, a string is created as Female.
In most cases, you may know the only types of value that would be submitted to a CASE statement. In some other cases, an unpredictable value may be submitted. If you anticipate a value other than those you are aware of, the CASE statement provides a "fit-all' alternative by using the last statement as ELSE. In this case, the formula of the CASE statement would be:
CASE Expression WHEN Value1 THEN Result WHEN Value2 THEN Result WHEN Value_n THEN Result ELSE Alternative END
The ELSE statement, as the last, is used when none of the values of the WHEN statements fits. Here is an example:
DECLARE @CharGender Char(1), @Gender Varchar(20); SET @CharGender = N'g'; SET @Gender = CASE @CharGender WHEN 'm' THEN 'Male' WHEN 'M' THEN 'Male' WHEN 'f' THEN 'Female' WHEN 'F' THEN 'Female' ELSE 'Unknown' END; SELECT N'Student Gender: ' + @Gender; GO
This would produce:
If you don't produce an ELSE statement but a value not addressed by any of the WHEN statements is produced, the result would be NULL. Here is an example:
This means that it is a valuable safeguard to always include an ELSE sub-statement in a CASE statement.
To examine a condition and evaluate it before taking action, you can use the WHILE operator. The basic formula of this statement is:
WHILE Expression Statement
When implementing this statement, first provide an Expression after the WHILE keyword. The Expression must produce a true or a false result. If the Expression is true, then the interpreter executes the Statement. After executing the Statement, the Expression is checked again. AS LONG AS the Expression is true, it will keep executing the Statement. When or once the Expression becomes false, it stops executing the Statement. This scenario can be illustrated as follows:
Here is an example:
DECLARE @Number As int WHILE @Number < 5 SELECT @Number AS Number GO
To effectively execute a while condition, you should make sure you provide a mechanism for the interpreter to get a referenced value for the condition, variable, or expression being checked. This is sometimes in the form of a variable being initialized although it could be some other expression. Such a while condition could be illustrated as follows:
Databases and other programming environments provide operators you can use to perform data analysis. The operators used are called logical operators because they are used to perform comparisons that produce a result of true or false (there is no middle result; in other words, something is not half true or half false or "Don't Know": either it is true or it is false).
To support the null value, Transact-SQL provides a constant named NULL. The NULL constant is mostly used for comparison purposes. For example, you can use an IF statement to check the nullity of a variable.
To validate something as being possible, you can use the IS operator. For example, to acknowledge that something is NULL, you can use the IS NULL expression.
To deny the presence, the availability, or the existence of a value, you can use the NOT operator. This operator is primarily used to reverse a Boolean value. For example, we have learned that FALSE is the opposite of TRUE. In the same way, TRUE is the opposite of FALSE. If you want to compare a value as not being TRUE, the NOT TRUE would produce the same result as the FALSE value. For the same reason, the expression NOT FALSE is the same as TRUE.