db2 != check

For grins, try this:
I know they're supposedly both the same thing, but curious if there is some logic that might make one different.

select * from CUSTOMER where NAME <> 'Eric'

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>>select * from CUSTOMER where NAME <> 'Eric'
nope, already tried that but still doesn't work.
thanks

is the "ID" field an actual entered field or is it an identity field?

when I do
select * from CUSTOMER where NAME = 'Eric'
I see one row, so I am really confused why != doesn't work.

>>>is the "ID" field an actual entered field or is it an identity field?
ID and NAME are just a VARCHAR fields , no identity field in the table.

something like this works
select * from CUSTOMER where NAME != 'Eric' or name is null

but is that guaranteed to work is my concern.

I just want to return everything whose NAME is not Eric.

The root issue withOUT the "or name is null" is that you can't evaluate null against a condition.  Something either is, or is not, null.  It cannot be compared to any specific value.

In conclusion, if you need the null results you simply have to include that extra bit of code.

A null is neither equal nor not equal. It's... null. That is, a value doesn't exist in that column in that row. If it doesn't exist, a comparison doesn't make logical sense.

thanks all.

Hi!

You could do a query like this

select coalesce(NAME , 'A EMPTY FIELD') NAME from CUSTOMER where NAME <> 'Eric' ;

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This would give you the names that are in the column NAME excluding the name Eric and
report all rows that are NULL with 'A EMPTY FIELD' string.  
Note that a NULL value indicates that a particular value for a certain column in a certain row is missing.

Regards,
     Tomas Helgi