Question

IF clause in an SQL SELECT statement?

Asked by: fcfang

Hi folks,

I have a SQL 2000 database with columns
FirstName, Lastname and Nickname. I'd like to create a view that returns the list such that the Nickname is returned as the first column if that row contains one a nickname or the FirstName if a Nickname doesn't exist. The kicker is I'd like the Nickname/FirstName first column to be the primary sort.

ie

James, Burton, Jim
Sally, Bossie,<NULL>
William, Inky, Bill

would return
Bill, Inky
Jim, Burton
Sally, Bossie

anyone know how I might accomplish this in a select statement?  Thanks very much in advance.

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Asked On
2004-04-05 at 17:03:41ID20944505
Tags

clause

,

select

,

sql

Topic

MS SQL Server

Participating Experts
3
Points
450
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: jmcraigPosted on 2004-04-05 at 17:52:13ID: 10762240

Try this

SELECT     COALESCE (Nickname, FirstName) AS Nickname, LastName
FROM         Table1


Joshua


 

by: jmcraigPosted on 2004-04-05 at 17:53:10ID: 10762244

P.S.

Table1 is your table name of course

 

by: fcfangPosted on 2004-04-05 at 18:14:37ID: 10762316

My apologies, Joshua, my original question was flawed. I also have rows in the DB that are non-null for the Nickname but is an empty string. Once I get the answer, I'll make sure you get some of the points.

So to re-state the question...

I have a SQL 2000 database with columns
FirstName, Lastname and Nickname. I'd like to create a view that returns the list such that the Nickname is returned as the first column if that row contains one a nickname or the FirstName if a Nickname doesn't exist. The kicker is I'd like the Nickname/FirstName first column to be the primary sort.

ie

James, Burton, Jim
Sally, Bossie,<NULL>
William, Inky, Bill
John, Olsen, "" <-- an empty string
Kyle, Johans,""


would return
Bill, Inky
Jim, Burton
John, Olsen
Kyle, Johans
Sally, Bossie

 

by: jmcraigPosted on 2004-04-05 at 19:10:36ID: 10762559

Try this then


SELECT  ISNULL(NULLIF (Nickname, ''), FirstName) AS Nickname, LastName FROM  Table1

 

by: appariPosted on 2004-04-05 at 20:19:38ID: 10762835

use case structure. your query should be something like this

SELECT     case when isnull(Nickname,'')='' then FirstName else NickName) end AS Nickname, LastName
FROM         yourtable

 

by: appariPosted on 2004-04-05 at 20:20:36ID: 10762837

mistake in prev query, extra paranthasis,

SELECT     case when isnull(Nickname,'')='' then FirstName else NickName end AS Nickname, LastName
FROM         yourtable

 

by: johnfarragherPosted on 2004-04-06 at 09:16:49ID: 10767278

select FirstName + ', ', Lastname
from YOURTABLE
where Nickname is null

union

select Nickname + ', ', Lastname
from YOURTABLE
where Nickname is not null

 

by: johnfarragherPosted on 2004-04-06 at 09:17:33ID: 10767288

select FirstName + ', ' as First, Lastname
from YOURTABLE
where Nickname is null

union

select Nickname + ', ' as First, Lastname
from YOURTABLE
where Nickname is not null

 

by: fcfangPosted on 2004-04-06 at 12:34:55ID: 10769023

Thanks very much to all of you for responding. Joshua's solution was a somewhat simpler and more elegant though it was nice to be able to see how I could use the CASE WHEN statement in a SELECT query from appari.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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