SQL Nulls

NULL values represent missing unknown data.

By default, a table column can hold NULL values.

This chapter will explain the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators.

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SQL NULL Values

If a column in a table is optional, we can insert a new record or update an existing record without adding a value to this column. This means that the field will be saved with a NULL value.

NULL values are treated differently from other values.

NULL is used as a placeholder for unknown or inapplicable values.

 Note: It is not possible to compare NULL and 0; they are not equivalent.

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SQL Working with NULL Values

Look at the following "Persons" table:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola		Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari		Stavanger

Suppose that the "Address" column in the "Persons" table is optional. This means that if we insert a record with no value for the "Address" column, the "Address" column will be saved with a NULL value.

How can we test for NULL values?

It is not possible to test for NULL values with comparison operators, such as =, <, or <>.

We will have to use the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators instead.

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SQL IS NULL

How do we select only the records with NULL values in the "Address" column?

We will have to use the IS NULL operator:

SELECT LastName,FirstName,Address FROM Persons WHERE Address IS NULL

The result-set will look like this:

LastName	FirstName	Address
Hansen	Ola
Pettersen	Kari

Tip: Always use IS NULL to look for NULL values.

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SQL IS NOT NULL

How do we select only the records with no NULL values in the "Address" column?

We will have to use the IS NOT NULL operator:

SELECT LastName,FirstName,Address FROM Persons WHERE Address IS NOT NULL

The result-set will look like this:

LastName	FirstName	Address
Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23

In the next chapter we will look at the ISNULL(), NVL(), IFNULL() and COALESCE() functions.