Getting null result when applying not in SQL operator? - sql

I have two tables: opcsourcetags and real_raw_ponts.
There is a foreign key of opcsourcetags in real_raw_points table. I want to get the rows from opcsourcetags against which there is not ID in real_raw_ponits but I am getting the null result. Here is my query:
select *
from OPC_SourceTags opc
where opc.Source_Tag_Id not in (
select rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk
from Real_Raw_Points rt
)

You should be able to do the following
SELECT opc.* FROM OPC_SourceTags opc
LEFT JOIN Real_Raw_Points rt ON (rt.Source_Tag_Id = opc.Source_Tag_Id)
WHERE rt.Source_Tag_Id is null;

This is because IN/NOT IN uses 3-valued logic. In this case you've used NOT IN, ie NOT TRUE. SQL Server when checking the list of values you supply will evaluate NULL as UNKNOWN, therefore it is unknown whether the source tag id appears in the set.
IN will discard rows it cannot say with certainty are TRUE, whereas NOT IN will return UNKNOWN ie NULL for the entire set, as it cannot say with certainty that the value among the list of values you provided.
I would recommend reading more about 3-valued logic, as it's not a simple thing to explain. You can either use Mukesh's method, but this will not return rows where Source_Tag_Id_Fk is NULL in the Source_Tag_Id_Fk table. Best practice is to use NOT EXISTS instead of NOT IN. NOT EXISTS uses two-valued logic.
select *
from OPC_SourceTags opc
where not exists (
select rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk
from Real_Raw_Points rt
where opc.Source_Tag_Id = rt.Source_Tag_id_Fk
)

Try below-updated query - Just added where condition in your subquery where rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk is not null
Note: If there is a null value in this column rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk the whole result will be null. if there is no null value then your query will also work fine hence you must apply is not null on rt.Source_Tag_Id_fk column in your subquery
select *
from OPC_SourceTags opc
where opc.Source_Tag_Id not in (
select rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk
from Real_Raw_Points rt where rt.Source_Tag_Id_Fk is not null
)

Related

How to return a null column using NOT IN () in SQL

I want to return some data using the following query.
select *
from table
where code_value not in ('44','45','46')
This statement return all expected rows except rows with code_value = null.
I want to get the null columns also.
How can I get that?
Use IS NULL :
WHERE (code_value IS NULL OR code_value not in ('44','45','46'));
NOT IN will not return records when compared against an unknown value or NULL values.
The direct comparison to NULL is the right solution. But I offer this to illustrate the "inverse" of IN. It is more like:
select t.*
from t
except
select t.*
from t
where code_value not in ('44', '45', '46');
Than not in. This is not even exact either, because except removes duplicates. But it is logically closer to the inverse.
I would do it using isnull in conjunction with a default value which doesn't exist in the code_value;
select *
from table
where isnull(code_value,'<<non existing value>>') not in ('44','45','46')

SQL Server where column in where clause is null

Let's say that we have a table named Data with Id and Weather columns. Other columns in that table are not important to this problem. The Weather column can be null.
I want to display all rows where Weather fits a condition, but if there is a null value in weather then display null value.
My SQL so far:
SELECT *
FROM Data d
WHERE (d.Weather LIKE '%'+COALESCE(NULLIF('',''),'sunny')+'%' OR d.Weather IS NULL)
My results are wrong, because that statement also shows values where Weather is null if condition is not correct (let's say that users mistyped wrong).
I found similar topic, but there I do not find appropriate answer.
SQL WHERE clause not returning rows when field has NULL value
Please help me out.
Your query is correct for the general task of treating NULLs as a match. If you wish to suppress NULLs when there are no other results, you can add an AND EXISTS ... condition to your query, like this:
SELECT *
FROM Data d
WHERE d.Weather LIKE '%'+COALESCE(NULLIF('',''),'sunny')+'%'
OR (d.Weather IS NULL AND EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Data dd WHERE dd.Weather LIKE '%'+COALESCE(NULLIF('',''),'sunny')+'%'))
The additional condition ensures that NULLs are treated as matches only if other matching records exist.
You can also use a common table expression to avoid duplicating the query, like this:
WITH cte (id, weather) AS
(
SELECT *
FROM Data d
WHERE d.Weather LIKE '%'+COALESCE(NULLIF('',''),'sunny')+'%'
)
SELECT * FROM cte
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM Data WHERE weather is NULL AND EXISTS (SELECT * FROM cte)
statement show also values where Wether is null if condition is not correct (let say that users typed wrong sunny).
This suggests that the constant 'sunny' is coming from end-user's input. If that is the case, you need to parameterize your query to avoid SQL injection attacks.

Excluding a Null value returns 0 rows in a sub query

I'm trying to clean up some data in SQL server and add a foreign key between the two tables.
I have a large quantity of orphaned rows in one of the tables that I would like to delete. I don't know why the following query would return 0 rows in MS SQL server.
--This Query returns no Rows
select * from tbl_A where ID not in ( select distinct ID from tbl_B
)
When I include IS NOT NULL in the subquery I get the results that I expect.
-- Rows are returned that contain all of the records in tbl_A but Not in tbl_B
select * from tbl_A where ID not in ( select distinct ID from tbl_B
where ID is not null )
The ID column is nullable and does contain null values. IF I run just the subquery I get the exact same results except the first query returns one extra NULL row as expected.
This is the expected behavior of the NOT IN subquery. When a subquery returns a single null value NOT IN will not match any rows.
If you don't exclusively want to do a null check, then you will want to use NOT EXISTS:
select *
from tbl_A A
where not exists (select distinct ID
from tbl_B b
where a.id = b.id)
As to why the NOT IN is causing issues, here are some posts that discuss it:
NOT IN vs. NOT EXISTS vs. LEFT JOIN / IS NULL
NOT EXISTS vs NOT IN
What's the difference between NOT EXISTS vs. NOT IN vs. LEFT JOIN WHERE IS NULL?
Matching on NULL with equals (=) will return NULL or UNKNOWN as opposed to true/false from a logic standpoint. E.g. see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196339(v=sql.80).aspx for discussion.
If you want to include finding NULL values in table A where there is no NULL in table B (if B is the "parent" and A is the "child" in the "foreign key" relationship you desire) then you would need a second statement, something like the following. Also I would recommend qualifying the ID field with a table prefix or alias since the field names are the same in both tables. Finally, I would not recommend having NULL values as the key. But in any case:
select * from tbl_A as A where (A.ID not in ( select distinct B.ID from tbl_B as B ))
or (A.ID is NULL and not exists(select * from tbl_B as B where B.ID is null))
The problem is the non-comparability of nulls. If you are asking "not in" and there are nulls in the subquery it cannot say that anything anything is definitely not in becuase it is looking at those nulls as "unknown" and so the answer is always "unknown" in the three value logic that SQL uses.
Now of course that is all assuming you have ANSI_NULLS ON (which is the default) If you turn that off then suddenly NULLS become comparable and it will give you results, and probably the results you expect.
If the ids are never negative, you might consider something like:
select *
from tbl_A
where coalesce(ID, -1) not in ( select distinct coalesce(ID, -1) from tbl_B )
(Or if id is a string, use something line coalesce(id, '<null>')).
This may not work in all cases, but it has the virtue of simplicity on the coding level.
You probably have ANSI NULLs switched off. This compares null values so null=null will return true.
Prefix the first query with
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

mismatch not picked up when one value is null

I have a simple SQL query where a comparison is done between two tables for mismatching value.
Yesterday, we picked up an issue where one field was null and the other wasn't, but a mismatch was not detected.
As far as I can determine,the logic has been working all along until yesterday.
Here is the logic of the SQL:
CREATE TABLE Table1
(UserID INT,PlayDate DATETIME)
CREATE TABLE Table2
(UserID INT,PlayDate DATETIME)
INSERT INTO Table1 (UserID)
SELECT 5346
INSERT INTO Table2 (UserID,PlayDate)
SELECT 5346,'2012-11-01'
SELECT a.UserID
FROM Table1 a
INNER JOIN
Table2 b
ON a.UserID = b.UserID
WHERE a.PlayDate <> b.PlayDate
No values are returned even though the PlayDate values are different.
I have now updated the WHERE to read:
WHERE ISNULL(a.PlayDate,'') <> ISNULL(b.PlayDate,'')
Is there a setting in SQL which someone could have changed to cause the original code to no longer pick up the difference in fields?
Thanks
NULL <> anything
is unknown not true. SQL uses three valued logic (false/true/unknown) and the predicate needs to evaluate to true in a where clause for the row to be returned.
In fact in standard SQL any comparison with NULL except for IS [NOT] NULL yields unknown. Including WHERE NULL = NULL
You don't state RDBMS but if it supports IS DISTINCT FROM you could use that or if you are using MySQL it has a null safe equality operator <=> you could negate.
You say you think it previously behaved differently. If you are on SQL Server you might be using a different setting for ANSI_NULLS somehow but this setting is deprecated and you should rewrite any code that depends on it anyway.
You can simulate IS DISTINCT FROM in SQL Server with WHERE EXISTS (SELECT a.PlayDate EXCEPT SELECT b.PlayDate)
Not even a NULL can be equal to NULL.
Here are two common queries that just don’t work:
select * from table where column = null;
select * from table where column <> null;
there is no concept of equality or inequality, greater than or less
than with NULLs. Instead, one can only say “is” or “is not”
(without the word “equal”) when discussing NULLs.
- The correct way to write the queries
select * from table where column IS NULL;
select * from table where column IS NOT NULL;

TSQL NOT EXISTS Why is this query so slow?

Debugging an app which queries SQL Server 05, can't change the query but need to optimise things.
Running all the selects seperately are quick <1sec, eg: select * from acscard, select id from employee... When joined together it takes 50 seconds.
Is it better to set uninteresting accesscardid fields to null or to '' when using EXISTS?
SELECT * FROM ACSCard
WHERE NOT EXISTS
( SELECT Id FROM Employee
WHERE Employee.AccessCardId = ACSCard.acs_card_number )
AND NOT EXISTS
( SELECT Id FROM Visit
WHERE Visit.AccessCardId = ACSCard.acs_card_number )
ORDER by acs_card_id
Do you have indexes on Employee.AccessCardId, Visit.AccessCardId, and ACSCard.acs_card_number?
The SELECT clause is not evaluated in an EXISTS clause. This:
WHERE EXISTS(SELECT 1/0
FROM EMPLOYEE)
...should raise an error for dividing by zero, but it won't. But you need to put something in the SELECT clause for it to be a valid query - it doesn't matter if it's NULL or a zero length string.
In SQL Server, NOT EXISTS (and NOT IN) are better than the LEFT JOIN/IS NULL approach if the columns being compared are not nullable (the values on either side can not be NULL). The columns compared should be indexed, if they aren't already.