Compare Values When One Is Null

When one value is null in SQL, you cannot directly compare it to any other value using comparison operators such as “=”. Instead, you need to use the IS NULL or IS NOT NULL operator to check whether a value is null.

For example, if you want to compare two values, column1 and column2, and column2 may be null, you can use the following SQL statement:

SELECT *  
FROM your_table  
WHERE column1 = column2 OR (column1 IS NULL AND column2 IS NULL);

In this example, the SQL statement checks if column1 is equal to column2 or both columns are null. If column2 is null, the comparison returns null, and the condition evaluates to false.

Therefore, we need to check explicitly if both columns are null using the AND operator and the IS NULL operator.

Using the COALESCE Function

When comparing values in SQL, particularly when one might be null, a common strategy is to substitute a default value for any nulls during the comparison. The COALESCE function is ideal for this purpose, as it allows you to define what value should be used in place of null. Let’s explore how this works with an example.

SELECT *  
FROM your_table  
WHERE column1 = COALESCE(column2, 'default_value');

In this example, column2 is compared to column1, but if column2 is NULL, it will be treated as ‘default_value’ (you would replace ‘default_value’ with an actual value that makes sense for your context). This allows for a comparison where you can control what NULL should be interpreted as during the comparison.

Using the NULLIF Function

Alternatively, another example to consider is when using NULLIF to avoid division by zero errors, which could tangentially relate to handling NULL values:

SELECT column1, column2, column1 / NULLIF(column2, 0) AS result
FROM your_table;

This SQL statement will return all rows from your_table, but when it comes to the result column, it will divide column1 by column2 unless column2 is 0, in which case it will return NULL instead of causing an error.

Both examples showcase handling NULL values in SQL with additional functions that could be useful for your readers to understand.

Note: Depending on your specific database platform, function such as ISNULL, IFNULL, or COALESCE may be more appropriate for the comparisons mentioned above.