<div>
Maybe because of the Shaft filter?<br />
What the following returns?<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42128906-1"><span>Select * From Descriptions Where Other &lt;&gt; 'Stope'</span>
</code></pre>
</div>


<div>
Thanks. That shows all the other records that are not 'masimong air' shaft but still no records that are 'masimong shaft' but not Other = 'Stope'
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&gt;NOTE: Providing sample data will help to provide you a faster and assertive answer.<br />
Amen brother...
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Hi. Thank you all. There was something strange happening because I populated the blank items with code from an Excel spreadsheet. Putting some info back in solved the problem so thanks for the help.
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<blockquote>
I populated the blank items 
</blockquote>
So, I think Paul's comment says something about the NULL values. You didn't provide sample data but Paul guessed that you may had those blank items.
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<div>
Thanks Vitor. &nbsp;&quot;NOT EQUAL&quot; does not detect NULLs (because first you must try to learn if it is equal, which you cannot do)<br />
<br />
Here is a tiny example:
<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-20-42130353-1"><span>declare @Descriptions table</span>
<span>    (Shaft varchar(40), Other varchar(40))</span>
<span>;</span>
<span>    </span>
<span>INSERT INTO @Descriptions </span>
<span>    (Shaft, Other)</span>
<span>VALUES</span>
<span>    ('masimong air', 'Stope'),</span>
<span>    ('liviero air', 'Not That'),</span>
<span>    ('liviero air', NULL)</span>
<span>;</span>
<span></span>
<span>select * from @Descriptions</span>
<span>where other &lt;&gt; 'Stope'</span>
<span>;</span>
<span>+----+-------------+----------+</span>
<span>|    |    Shaft    |  Other   |</span>
<span>+----+-------------+----------+</span>
<span>|  1 | liviero air | Not That |</span>
<span>+----+-------------+----------+</span>
<span></span>
<span>select * from @Descriptions</span>
<span>where ( other &lt;&gt; 'Stope' OR Other IS NULL)</span>
<span>;</span>
<span>+---+-------------+----------+</span>
<span>|   |    Shaft    |  Other   |</span>
<span>+---+-------------+----------+</span>
<span>| 1 | liviero air | Not That |</span>
<span>| 2 | liviero air | NULL     |</span>
<span>+---+-------------+----------+</span>
</code></pre>
This is not wrong, it complies with the SQL standard. i.e. it is &quot;expected behaviour&quot;
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<div>
Yes Vitor: Paul's advice helped me too. Thanks both again. I learned something really important here
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<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Hi<br />
I have a table called [Descriptions] with a column called [Other]. Half of the records on this table<br />
have the word &quot;Stope&quot; in. The following SQL shows all these records<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-10-29021722-1"><span>Select * From Descriptions Where Shaft = 'masimong air' And Other = 'Stope'</span>
</code></pre>
<br />
but this SQL query does not show the other 20 records that do not have the word &quot;Stope&quot; in. <br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-10-29021722-2"><span>Select * From Descriptions Where Shaft = 'masimong air' And Other &lt;&gt; 'Stope'</span>
</code></pre>
<br />
Why does the second query not work properly?
</div>
</div>


Hi
I have a table called [Descriptions] with a column called [Other]. Half of the records on this table
have the word "Stope" in. The following SQL shows all these records
(CODE)

but this SQL query does not show the other 20 records that do not have the word "Stope" in. 
(CODE)

Why does the second query not work properly?

SQL Not Equal To not working as expected

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