Oracle Coalesce returns blank - sql

I have following query which uses coalesce to return the id of a calendar with a specific code
SELECT COALESCE(SD_CALENDAR.ID,0) FROM SD_CALENDAR WHERE SD_CALENDAR.CODE = 'BOER';
But when I run this I get a blank column as result, instead of 0. What do I need to change to make my query work?

You said that no rows in your table match your query, so you are trying to return 0 when there is no match, rather than returning no data at all.
If NAME is unique then you could use an aggregate to achieve this:
SELECT COALESCE(MAX(SD_CALENDAR.ID),0) FROM SD_CALENDAR WHERE SD_CALENDAR.CODE = 'BOER';
The MAX() will always return one row; if there is a match it will be the single ID anyway, and if there isn't it will be null - which you can then coalesce to zero.
If NAME isn't unique and you expect multiple values back then you can use a union to provide the zero value when there is no match:
SELECT COALESCE(SD_CALENDAR.ID,0) FROM SD_CALENDAR WHERE SD_CALENDAR.CODE = 'BOER'
UNION ALL
SELECT 0 FROM DUAL WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT COALESCE(SD_CALENDAR.ID,0) FROM SD_CALENDAR WHERE SD_CALENDAR.CODE = 'BOER'
);
Depending on what you're doing, it might be better/easier to let your application handle a no-data-found result and substitute a zero itself.

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')

Display default value if query results in no records in BigQuery

A query can return an empty table on BigQuery. An example of such occurrence is if I join a bunch of tables in a query on BigQuery and the result of the joins is an empty table, or if there are no matches based on the where clause.
Here is a dumb sample query that will always return in an empty join:
#standardSQL
WITH query1 AS (
SELECT 1 AS number, "one" AS message
), query2 AS (
SELECT 2 AS number, "two" AS message)
SELECT "query result" AS result, query1.*
FROM query1
JOIN query2 ON query1.number = query2.number;
The query will show this output: Query returned zero records.
If that's the case I want to return either a message or a default row. But I don't know how to do that. I've tried using IFNULL, but that's only usuable for one column, not number of columns. Using an IF statement gave me errors as you can't return row(s) from an if statement.
I think the error it gave me was Scalar subquery cannot have more than one column unless using SELECT AS STRUCT to build STRUCT values.
Another thing that I could think of, but don't know how to implement is to add a UNION at the end that would only trigger if the previous parts didn't return anything. Or wrap the existing query in a WITH statement subquery and if that returns nothing, print a message, else do SELECT * FROM sub_query.
I'd like to either just display a message when an empty table is the result, or return a row with some default values.
I understand the answer is likely to contain a UNION statement and hence displaying just a message won't be possible. In that case I'd like to display a default row instead. For the above sample query a default row would look like: "No results found", NULL, NULL.
When the query returns a non empty table, I want it to look exactly like it did with the original query. So there shouldn't be any added columns or change to the schema of the result.
You would use union all. Something like this:
with t as (
. . . <all your query stuff here>
)
select cast(NULL as string) as msg, t.*
from t
union all
select msg, t.* -- all the `t` columns will be `NULL`
from (select 'No rows returned' as msg) left join
t
on 1 = 0 -- always false
where not exists (select 1 from t);
Note the complications. A query returns a fixed set of columns with a fixed set of names. This version returns an extra column at the beginning of the data to contain the message. In order to get all the rest of the columns, a left join is used, but the on clause is always false.
Option 1
Below displays row with all nulls in case if there is no result returned for your_query
#standardSQL
WITH your_query AS ( ... )
SELECT * FROM your_query
UNION ALL
SELECT your_query.* REPLACE ("No results found" AS result)
FROM (SELECT 1)
LEFT JOIN your_query ON FALSE
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM your_query)
Row result number message
1 No results found null null
Option 2
If you know in advance output schema - below returns default row (assuming 0 default for number and "none" default for message
#standardSQL
WITH your_query AS ( ... )
SELECT * FROM your_query
UNION ALL
SELECT "No results found", 0, "none" FROM (SELECT 1)
LEFT JOIN your_query ON FALSE
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM your_query)
Row result number message
1 No results found 0 none

SQL Statement with CASE when there are no values

I am trying to use CASE statement for the following, however it is not getting desired results.
What I would like to have is if there are no values based on where condition, then I would like to return 'N' as the result.
SELECT CASE WHEN val IS NULL THEN 'N' else val END
from (select nvl(is_expired,'x')val
FROM test
WHERE product_no = '12DF')
When product_no 12DF doesn't exist in table, I would like to return a value instead of empty or null.
Table structure is specified here
If there are no products '12DF', then you won't get any lines from your subselect.
I'm not quite sure which problem you want to solve.
If you have embedded this in a program, because you can get a result set containing more than one row, that code should be able to handle an empty set as well.
If you expect zero or one lines in your result set, you can use an aggregate function like max.
select nvl(max(is_expired), 'N')
from test
where product_no = '12DF';

How to select items with all possible id-s or just a particular one using the same query?

Is there a variable in SQL that can be used to represent ALL the possible values of a field? Something like this pseudo-code
SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = *ALL_EXISTING_ID-s*
I want to return all rows in this case, but later when I do a search and need only one item I can simply replace that variable with the id I'm looking for, i.e.
SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = 1
The simplest way is to remove the WHERE clause. This will return all rows.
SELECT name FROM table
If you want some "magic" value you can use for the ID that you can use in your existing query and it will return all rows, I think you're out of luck.
Though you could use something like this:
SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = IFNULL(?, id)
If the value NULL is provided, all rows will be returned.
If you don't like NULL then try the following query, which will return all rows if the value -1 is provided:
SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = IFNULL(NULLIF(?, -1), id)
Another approach that achieves the same effect (but requires binding the id twice) is:
SELECT name FROM table WHERE (id = ? OR ? = -1)

How do you query an int column for any value?

How can you query a column for any value in that column? (ie. How do I build a dynamic where clause that can either filter the value, or not.)
I want to be able to query for either a specific value, or not. For instance, I might want the value to be 1, but I might want it to be any number.
Is there a way to use a wild card (like "*"), to match any value, so that it can be dynamically inserted where I want no filter?
For instance:
select int_col from table where int_col = 1 // Query for a specific value
select int_col from table where int_col = * // Query for any value
The reason why I do not want to use 2 separate SQL statements is because I am using this as a SQL Data Source, which can only have 1 select statement.
Sometimes I would query for actual value (like 1, 2...) so I can't not have a condition either.
I take it you want some dynamic behavior on your WHERE clause, without having to dynamically build your WHERE clause.
With a single parameter, you can use ISNULL (or COALESCE) like this:
SELECT * FROM Table WHERE ID = ISNULL(#id, ID)
which allows a NULL parameter to match all. Some prefer the longer but more explicit:
SELECT * FROM Table WHERE (#id IS NULL) OR (ID = #id)
A simple answer would be use: IS NOT NULL. But if you are asking for say 123* for numbers like 123456 or 1234 or 1237 then the you could convert it to a varchar and then test against using standard wild cards.
In your where clause: cast(myIntColumn as varchar(15)) like '123%'.
Assuming the value you're filtering on is a parameter in a stored procedure, or contained in a variable called #Value, you can do it like this:
select * from table where #Value is null or intCol = #Value
If #Value is null then the or part of the clause is ignored, so the query won't filter on intCol.
The equivalent of wildcards for numbers are the comparators.
So, if you wanted to find all positive integers:
select int_col from table where int_col > 0
any numbers between a hundred and a thousand:
select int_col from table where int_col BETWEEN 100 AND 1000
and so on.
I don't quite understand what you're asking. I think you should use two different queries for the different situations you have.
When you're not looking for a specific value:
SELECT * FROM table
When you are looking for a specific value:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE intcol = 1
You can use the parameter as a wildcard by assigning special meaning to NULL:
DECLARE #q INT = 1
SELECT * FROM table WHERE IntegerColumn = #q OR #q IS NULL
This way, when you pass in NULL; you get all rows.
If NULL is a valid value to query for, then you need to use two parameters.
If you really want the value of your column for all rows on the table you can simply use
select int_col
from table
If you want to know all the distinct values, but don't care how many times they're repeated you can use
select distinct int_col
from table
And if you want to know all the distinct values and how many times they each appear, use
select int_col, count(*)
from table
group by int_col
To have the values sorted properly you can add
order by int_col
to all the queries above.
Share and enjoy.