SELECT Statement in CASE - sql

Question

Please don't downgrade this as it is bit complex for me to explain. I'm working on data migration so some of the structures look weird because it was designed by someone like that.
For ex, I have a table Person with PersonID and PersonName as columns. I have duplicates in the table.
I have Details table where I have PersonName stored in a column. This PersonName may or may not exist in the Person table. I need to retrieve PersonID from the matching records otherwise put some hardcode value in PersonID.
I can't write below query because PersonName is duplicated in Person Table, this join doubles the rows if there is a matching record due to join.
SELECT d.Fields, PersonID
FROM Details d
JOIN Person p ON d.PersonName = p.PersonName
The below query works but I don't know how to replace "NULL" with some value I want in place of NULL
SELECT d.Fields, (SELECT TOP 1 PersonID FROM Person where PersonName = d.PersonName )
FROM Details d
So, there are some PersonNames in the Details table which are not existent in Person table. How do I write CASE WHEN in this case?
I tried below but it didn't work
SELECT d.Fields,
CASE WHEN (SELECT TOP 1 PersonID
FROM Person
WHERE PersonName = d.PersonName) = null
THEN 123
ELSE (SELECT TOP 1 PersonID
FROM Person
WHERE PersonName = d.PersonName) END Name
FROM Details d
This query is still showing the same output as 2nd query. Please advise me on this. Let me know, if I'm unclear anywhere. Thanks

Answer 1

well.. I figured I can put ISNULL on top of SELECT to make it work.
SELECT d.Fields,
ISNULL(SELECT TOP 1 p.PersonID
FROM Person p where p.PersonName = d.PersonName, 124) id
FROM Details d

Answer 2

A simple left outer join to pull back all persons with an optional match on the details table should work with a case statement to get your desired result.
SELECT
*
FROM
(
SELECT
Instance=ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY PersonName),
PersonID=CASE WHEN d.PersonName IS NULL THEN 'XXXX' ELSE p.PersonID END,
d.Fields
FROM
Person p
LEFT OUTER JOIN Details d on d.PersonName=p.PersonName
)AS X
WHERE
Instance=1

Answer 3

Ooh goody, a chance to use two LEFT JOINs. The first will list the IDs where they exist, and insert a default otherwise; the second will eliminate the duplicates.
SELECT d.Fields, ISNULL(p1.PersonID, 123)
FROM Details d
LEFT JOIN Person p1 ON d.PersonName = p1.PersonName
LEFT JOIN Person p2 ON p2.PersonName = p1.PersonName
AND p2.PersonID < p1.PersonID
WHERE p2.PersonID IS NULL

Answer 4

You could use common table expressions to build up the missing datasets, i.e. your complete Person table, then join that to your Detail table as follows;
declare #n int;
-- set your default PersonID here;
set #n = 123;
-- Make sure previous SQL statement is terminated with semilcolon for with clause to parse successfully.
-- First build our unique list of names from table Detail.
with cteUniqueDetailPerson
(
[PersonName]
)
as
(
select distinct [PersonName]
from [Details]
)
-- Second get unique Person entries and record the most recent PersonID value as the active Person.
, cteUniquePersonPerson
(
[PersonID]
, [PersonName]
)
as
(
select
max([PersonID]) -- if you wanted the original Person record instead of the last, change this to min.
, [PersonName]
from [Person]
group by [PersonName]
)
-- Third join unique datasets to get the PersonID when there is a match, otherwise use our default id #n.
-- NB, this would also include records when a Person exists with no Detail rows (they are filtered out with the final inner join)
, cteSudoPerson
(
[PersonID]
, [PersonName]
)
as
(
select
coalesce(upp.[PersonID],#n) as [PersonID]
coalesce(upp.[PersonName],udp.[PersonName]) as [PersonName]
from cteUniquePersonPerson upp
full outer join cteUniqueDetailPerson udp
on udp.[PersonName] = p.[PersonName]
)
-- Fourth, join detail to the sudo person table that includes either the original ID or our default ID.
select
d.[Fields]
, sp.[PersonID]
from [Details] d
inner join cteSudoPerson sp
on sp.[PersonName] = d.[PersonName];