SSRS cannot parse SQL query - sql

I am trying to define an SQL query in my SSRS report, but I am getting some syntax errors:
Error in SELECT clause: expression near 'WHEN'.
Missing FROM clause.
Error in SELECT clause: expression near ','.
Unable to parse query text.
The query is not that complicated, but rather a bit convoluted, but I'll try to convey at least the structure of it here:
select
(CASE WHEN columnA1 is null THEN columnA2 ELSE columnA1 END) as columnA,
(CASE WHEN columnB1 is null THEN columnB2 ELSE columnB1 END) as "custom_name_for_columnB"
from
(
(select a.columnA1, ...
from myTable a, ...
// join conditions
)
union
select * from
(select a.columnA1, ...
from myTable a, ...
// join conditions
order by someColumn) source
)
);
I don't think it really matters what the query does since I ran it in my DMBS successfully, so I'm pretty sure it's correct SQL syntax (I'm working on Oracle DB). I think what I'm not seeing is some syntax specific to SSRS. I'm completely new to it, so I don't know whether it supports the entire SQL syntax like CASE WHEN, unions etc.

As it complains about CASE (as if it doesn't recognize the syntax), try some more options:
COALESCE:
select coalesce(columnA1, columnA2) columnA,
coalesce(columnB1, columnB2) columnB
from ...
NVL:
select nvl(columnA1, columnA2) columnA,
nvl(columnB1, columnB2) columnB
from ...
DECODE:
select decode(columnA1, null, columnA2, columnA1) columnA,
decode(columnB1, null, columnB2, columnB1) columnB
from ...

Correct my query if I made too many changes, but I think there are a couple of things wrong:
SELECT (CASE WHEN t.columnA1 IS NULL THEN t.columnA2 ELSE t.columnA1 END) as columnA,
(CASE WHEN t.columnB1 IS NULL THEN t.columnB2 ELSE t.columnB1 END) as [custom_name_for_columnB]
FROM(
SELECT a.columnA1, ...
FROM myTable a, ...
JOIN conditions
UNION
SELECT * FROM
(
SELECT a.columnA1, ...
FROM m myTable a, ...
JOIN conditions
--ORDER BY someColumn --Can't have ORDER BY in subquery without TOP(n) / FOR XML.
) source
)t; --Needs an alias

Related

Why Using COALESCE or CASE keep returning null

I have the following SQL Query :
(SELECT ROUND(SUM(NBTOSUM)/1000000,1) FROM MyTable t2 WHERE t2.ELEMNAME IN ('A','B','C'))
Which works fine.
But Where there is no 'A','B','C' the result of the select is (null)
So to handle it, I did the following :
(SELECT COALESCE(ROUND(SUM(NBTOSUM)/1000000,1),0) FROM MyTable t2 WHERE t2.ELEMNAME IN ('A','B','C'))
And also try :
(SELECT
CASE
WHEN SUM(NBTOSUM)/1000000 IS NULL THEN 0
ELSE ROUND(SUM(NBTOSUM)/1000000,1)
END
FROM MyTable t2 WHERE t2.ELEMNAME IN ('A','B','C'))
But both keep returning null
What am I doing wrong ?
Move the WHERE restrictions to the CASE expression as well:
SELECT ROUND(SUM(CASE WHEN t2.ELEMNAME IN ('A','B','C')
THEN NBTOSUM ELSE 0 END) / 1000000, 1)
FROM MyTable t2;
Note that this trick solves the null problem and also avoids the need for an ugly COALESCE() call.
Your code should work as the SUM aggregation function will generate a single row of output regardless of whether the number of input rows is zero or non-zero. If there are no input rows or the values are all NULL then the output of the SUM will be NULL and then COALESCE would work.
Since you claim it does not then that suggests that there is something else going on in your query that you have not shared in the question.
You have braces around your statement suggesting that you are using it as part of a larger statement. If so, you can try moving the COALESCE to the outer query:
SELECT COALESCE(
(
SELECT ROUND(SUM(NBTOSUM)/1000000,1)
FROM MyTable
WHERE ELEMNAME IN ('A','B','C')
),
0
)
FROM your_outer_query;
That might fix the problem if you are somehow correlating to an outer query but your question makes no mention of that.
fiddle

Anyway to use IN operator in the SELECT statement? If not, why?

This may come off as a feature request more than anything, but it would be nice if SQL allowed use of the IN operator in a select statement such as the one below. I want to create new_variable intable1based on the ID variable in table2, hence the case statement.
select ID,
case when ID in (select ID
from table2)
then 1
else 0
end as new_variable
from table1
I understand that SQL will give me an error if I run this, but why is that the case? It doesn't seem obvious to me why SQL developers couldn't enable the IN operator to be used outside of the WHERE clause.
Side note: I'm currently using a left join to avoid this issue, so I am not hung up on this.
select ID,
case when ifnull(b.ID, 0) = 0 then 0
else 1
end as variable_name
from table1
left join(select ID from table2) as b
on a.ID = b.ID
SQL definitely supports this:
select ID,
(case when ID in (select ID from table2)
then 1 else 0
end) as new_variable
from table1
Note that there is a comma after id.
This is standard SQL. If your database doesn't support it, it is a feature request (and one that all or almost all databases support).

How Do I Use Case Statement Column In Group By

As stated by the question, I'm trying to formulate a query that has a case statement in the column results, and then I want to include that column in the query's group by statement. To give a concrete example, here is all little of what my query looks like:
SELECT SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2,
CASE
WHEN SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN3 IS NOT NULL THEN 'A'
ELSE 'B'
END AS CASE_COLUMN
FROM SOME_TABLE SOME_TABLE_ALIAS
... (other table joins and where clauses)
GROUP BY SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2, CASE_COLUMN
Before coming here, I checked out a few websites, including this one, to try solve my problem. I've tried adding another alias after the CASE keyword like is shown in the linked web page but have had no luck. The error message I continue to receive is the following:
[Error] Script lines: 127-151 ----------------------
CASE_COLUMN IS NOT VALID IN THE CONTEXT WHERE IT IS USED. SQLCODE=-206, SQLSTATE=42703, DRIVER=3.53.71
Has anyone else run into the issues I'm facing and been able to use a GROUP BY on the results of a CASE statement? Any help would be appreciated. Oh, and the DB2 version is a z/OS instance, version 10 (DSN10015)
The alias isn't available to use in the GROUP BY because when GROUP BY happens the alias isn't defined yet:
Here's the order:
1.FROM
2.WHERE
3.GROUP BY
4.HAVING
5.SELECT
6.ORDER BY
You can work around that with:
SELECT column1,column2,case_column
FROM (
SELECT SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2,
CASE
WHEN SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN3 IS NOT NULL THEN 'A'
ELSE 'B'
END AS CASE_COLUMN
FROM SOME_TABLE SOME_TABLE_ALIAS
... (other table joins and where clauses)
) a
GROUP BY COLUMN1, COLUMN2, CASE_COLUMN
Or just use the case you use in SELECT in GROUP BY
You can either use the case as is in the group by, like this:
SELECT SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2,
CASE
WHEN SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN3 IS NOT NULL THEN 'A'
ELSE 'B'
END AS CASE_COLUMN
FROM SOME_TABLE SOME_TABLE_ALIAS
... (other table joins and where clauses)
GROUP BY SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2,
CASE
WHEN SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN3 IS NOT NULL THEN 'A'
ELSE 'B'
END
or use a sub-query like this:
select COLUMN1, COLUMN2, CASE_COLUMN
from (
SELECT SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN1, OTHER_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN2,
CASE
WHEN SOME_TABLE_ALIAS.COLUMN3 IS NOT NULL THEN 'A'
ELSE 'B'
END AS CASE_COLUMN
FROM SOME_TABLE SOME_TABLE_ALIAS
... (other table joins and where clauses)
) a
GROUP BY COLUMN1, COLUMN2, CASE_COLUMN

Error handling or Exception handling in Netezza

I'm running a netezza sql process as part of a shell script and in one of the sql codes, I want it to raise an ERROR or exception if the number of rows from 2 different tables don't match.
SQL Code:
/* The following 2 tables should return the same number of rows to make sure the process is correct */
select count(*)
from (
select distinct col1, col2,col3
from table_a
where week > 0 and rec >= 1
) as x ;
select count(*)
from (
select distinct col1, col2, col3
from table_b
) as y ;
How do I compare the 2 row counts and raise an exception/ERROR in the netezza SQL process, so that it exits the process, if the 2 row counts aren't equal ?
I agree a script is the best option. However you could still do the check in your SQL itself by using a cross join
Select a.*
from Next_Step_table a cross join
(select case when y.y_cnt is null then 'No Match' else 'Match' end as match
from (select count(*) as x_cnt
from ( select distinct col1, col2,col3
from table_a
where week > 0 and rec >= 1
)) x left outer join
(select count(*) as y_cnt
from (select distinct col1, col2, col3
from table_b
)) y on x.x_cnt=y.y_cnt) match_tbl
where match_tbl.match='Match'
i'm guessing the best solution here is to do it in the script.
i.e store the result of count(*) in variables, then compare them. nzsql has command line options to only return the result data of a single query.
If it must be done in plain SQL, a horribly, horrible kludge that will work is to use divide-by-zero. It's ugly but I've used it before when testing stuff. off the top of my head:
with
subq_x as select count(*) c1 .... ,
subq_y as select count(*) c2 ...
select (case when (subq_x.c1 != subq_y.c1) then 1/0 else 1 end) counts_match;
Did I mention this is ugly ?

Counting null and non-null values in a single query

I have a table
create table us
(
a number
);
Now I have data like:
a
1
2
3
4
null
null
null
8
9
Now I need a single query to count null and not null values in column a
This works for Oracle and SQL Server (you might be able to get it to work on another RDBMS):
select sum(case when a is null then 1 else 0 end) count_nulls
, count(a) count_not_nulls
from us;
Or:
select count(*) - count(a), count(a) from us;
If I understood correctly you want to count all NULL and all NOT NULL in a column...
If that is correct:
SELECT count(*) FROM us WHERE a IS NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT count(*) FROM us WHERE a IS NOT NULL
Edited to have the full query, after reading the comments :]
SELECT COUNT(*), 'null_tally' AS narrative
FROM us
WHERE a IS NULL
UNION
SELECT COUNT(*), 'not_null_tally' AS narrative
FROM us
WHERE a IS NOT NULL;
Here is a quick and dirty version that works on Oracle :
select sum(case a when null then 1 else 0) "Null values",
sum(case a when null then 0 else 1) "Non-null values"
from us
for non nulls
select count(a)
from us
for nulls
select count(*)
from us
minus
select count(a)
from us
Hence
SELECT COUNT(A) NOT_NULLS
FROM US
UNION
SELECT COUNT(*) - COUNT(A) NULLS
FROM US
ought to do the job
Better in that the column titles come out correct.
SELECT COUNT(A) NOT_NULL, COUNT(*) - COUNT(A) NULLS
FROM US
In some testing on my system, it costs a full table scan.
As i understood your query, You just run this script and get Total Null,Total NotNull rows,
select count(*) - count(a) as 'Null', count(a) as 'Not Null' from us;
usually i use this trick
select sum(case when a is null then 0 else 1 end) as count_notnull,
sum(case when a is null then 1 else 0 end) as count_null
from tab
group by a
Just to provide yet another alternative, Postgres 9.4+ allows applying a FILTER to aggregates:
SELECT
COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE a IS NULL) count_nulls,
COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE a IS NOT NULL) count_not_nulls
FROM us;
SQLFiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!17/80a24/5
This is little tricky. Assume the table has just one column, then the Count(1) and Count(*) will give different values.
set nocount on
declare #table1 table (empid int)
insert #table1 values (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10),(NULL),(11),(12),(NULL),(13),(14);
select * from #table1
select COUNT(1) as "COUNT(1)" from #table1
select COUNT(empid) "Count(empid)" from #table1
Query Results
As you can see in the image, The first result shows the table has 16 rows. out of which two rows are NULL. So when we use Count(*) the query engine counts the number of rows, So we got count result as 16. But in case of Count(empid) it counted the non-NULL-values in the column empid. So we got the result as 14.
so whenever we are using COUNT(Column) make sure we take care of NULL values as shown below.
select COUNT(isnull(empid,1)) from #table1
will count both NULL and Non-NULL values.
Note: Same thing applies even when the table is made up of more than one column. Count(1) will give total number of rows irrespective of NULL/Non-NULL values. Only when the column values are counted using Count(Column) we need to take care of NULL values.
I had a similar issue: to count all distinct values, counting null values as 1, too. A simple count doesn't work in this case, as it does not take null values into account.
Here's a snippet that works on SQL and does not involve selection of new values.
Basically, once performed the distinct, also return the row number in a new column (n) using the row_number() function, then perform a count on that column:
SELECT COUNT(n)
FROM (
SELECT *, row_number() OVER (ORDER BY [MyColumn] ASC) n
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT [MyColumn]
FROM [MyTable]
) items
) distinctItems
Try this..
SELECT CASE
WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'Null'
ELSE 'Not Null'
END a,
Count(1)
FROM us
GROUP BY CASE
WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'Null'
ELSE 'Not Null'
END
Here are two solutions:
Select count(columnname) as countofNotNulls, count(isnull(columnname,1))-count(columnname) AS Countofnulls from table name
OR
Select count(columnname) as countofNotNulls, count(*)-count(columnname) AS Countofnulls from table name
Try
SELECT
SUM(ISNULL(a)) AS all_null,
SUM(!ISNULL(a)) AS all_not_null
FROM us;
Simple!
If you're using MS Sql Server...
SELECT COUNT(0) AS 'Null_ColumnA_Records',
(
SELECT COUNT(0)
FROM your_table
WHERE ColumnA IS NOT NULL
) AS 'NOT_Null_ColumnA_Records'
FROM your_table
WHERE ColumnA IS NULL;
I don't recomend you doing this... but here you have it (in the same table as result)
use ISNULL embedded function.
All the answers are either wrong or extremely out of date.
The simple and correct way of doing this query is using COUNT_IF function.
SELECT
COUNT_IF(a IS NULL) AS nulls,
COUNT_IF(a IS NOT NULL) AS not_nulls
FROM
us
SELECT SUM(NULLs) AS 'NULLS', SUM(NOTNULLs) AS 'NOTNULLs' FROM
(select count(*) AS 'NULLs', 0 as 'NOTNULLs' FROM us WHERE a is null
UNION select 0 as 'NULLs', count(*) AS 'NOTNULLs' FROM us WHERE a is not null) AS x
It's fugly, but it will return a single record with 2 cols indicating the count of nulls vs non nulls.
This works in T-SQL. If you're just counting the number of something and you want to include the nulls, use COALESCE instead of case.
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#us') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #us
CREATE TABLE #us
(
a INT NULL
);
INSERT INTO #us VALUES (1),(2),(3),(4),(NULL),(NULL),(NULL),(8),(9)
SELECT * FROM #us
SELECT CASE WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NON-NULL' END AS 'NULL?',
COUNT(CASE WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NON-NULL' END) AS 'Count'
FROM #us
GROUP BY CASE WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NON-NULL' END
SELECT COALESCE(CAST(a AS NVARCHAR),'NULL') AS a,
COUNT(COALESCE(CAST(a AS NVARCHAR),'NULL')) AS 'Count'
FROM #us
GROUP BY COALESCE(CAST(a AS NVARCHAR),'NULL')
Building off of Alberto, I added the rollup.
SELECT [Narrative] = CASE
WHEN [Narrative] IS NULL THEN 'count_total' ELSE [Narrative] END
,[Count]=SUM([Count]) FROM (SELECT COUNT(*) [Count], 'count_nulls' AS [Narrative]
FROM [CrmDW].[CRM].[User]
WHERE [EmployeeID] IS NULL
UNION
SELECT COUNT(*), 'count_not_nulls ' AS narrative
FROM [CrmDW].[CRM].[User]
WHERE [EmployeeID] IS NOT NULL) S
GROUP BY [Narrative] WITH CUBE;
SELECT
ALL_VALUES
,COUNT(ALL_VALUES)
FROM(
SELECT
NVL2(A,'NOT NULL','NULL') AS ALL_VALUES
,NVL(A,0)
FROM US
)
GROUP BY ALL_VALUES
select count(isnull(NullableColumn,-1))
if its mysql, you can try something like this.
select
(select count(*) from TABLENAME WHERE a = 'null') as total_null,
(select count(*) from TABLENAME WHERE a != 'null') as total_not_null
FROM TABLENAME
Just in case you wanted it in a single record:
select
(select count(*) from tbl where colName is null) Nulls,
(select count(*) from tbl where colName is not null) NonNulls
;-)
for counting not null values
select count(*) from us where a is not null;
for counting null values
select count(*) from us where a is null;
I created the table in postgres 10 and both of the following worked:
select count(*) from us
and
select count(a is null) from us
In my case I wanted the "null distribution" amongst multiple columns:
SELECT
(CASE WHEN a IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NOT-NULL' END) AS a_null,
(CASE WHEN b IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NOT-NULL' END) AS b_null,
(CASE WHEN c IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE 'NOT-NULL' END) AS c_null,
...
count(*)
FROM us
GROUP BY 1, 2, 3,...
ORDER BY 1, 2, 3,...
As per the '...' it is easily extendable to more columns, as many as needed
Number of elements where a is null:
select count(a) from us where a is null;
Number of elements where a is not null:
select count(a) from us where a is not null;