Conditional expressions

Conditional expressions impose constraints on the evaluation order of their inputs. In essence, they are evaluated left to right, with short-circuiting, and only evaluate the output value that was chosen. In contrast, all inputs to regular functions are evaluated before calling the function. Short-circuiting in conditional expressions can be exploited for error handling or performance tuning.

CASE expr

CASE expr
  WHEN expr_to_match THEN result
  [ ... ]
  [ ELSE else_result ]
END

Description

Compares expr to expr_to_match of each successive WHEN clause and returns the first result where this comparison returns true. The remaining WHEN clauses and else_result are not evaluated. If the expr = expr_to_match comparison returns false or NULL for all WHEN clauses, returns else_result if present; if not present, returns NULL.

expr and expr_to_match can be any type. They must be implicitly coercible to a common supertype; equality comparisons are done on coerced values. There may be multiple result types. result and else_result expressions must be coercible to a common supertype.

Return Data Type

Supertype of result[, ...] and else_result.

Example

WITH Numbers AS
 (SELECT 90 as A, 2 as B UNION ALL
  SELECT 50, 8 UNION ALL
  SELECT 60, 6 UNION ALL
  SELECT 50, 10)
SELECT A, B,
  CASE A
    WHEN 90 THEN 'red'
    WHEN 50 THEN 'blue'
    ELSE 'green'
  END
  AS result
FROM Numbers

+------------------+
| A  | B  | result |
+------------------+
| 90 | 2  | red    |
| 50 | 8  | blue   |
| 60 | 6  | green  |
| 50 | 10 | blue   |
+------------------+

CASE

CASE
  WHEN condition THEN result
  [ ... ]
  [ ELSE else_result ]
  END

Description

Evaluates the condition of each successive WHEN clause and returns the first result where the condition is true; any remaining WHEN clauses and else_result are not evaluated. If all conditions are false or NULL, returns else_result if present; if not present, returns NULL.

condition must be a boolean expression. There may be multiple result types. result and else_result expressions must be implicitly coercible to a common supertype.

Return Data Type

Supertype of result[, ...] and else_result.

Example

WITH Numbers AS
 (SELECT 90 as A, 2 as B UNION ALL
  SELECT 50, 6 UNION ALL
  SELECT 20, 10)
SELECT A, B,
  CASE
    WHEN A > 60 THEN 'red'
    WHEN A > 30 THEN 'blue'
    ELSE 'green'
  END
  AS result
FROM Numbers

+------------------+
| A  | B  | result |
+------------------+
| 90 | 2  | red    |
| 50 | 6  | blue   |
| 20 | 10 | green  |
+------------------+

COALESCE

COALESCE(expr[, ...])

Description

Returns the value of the first non-null expression. The remaining expressions are not evaluated. An input expression can be any type. There may be multiple input expression types. All input expressions must be implicitly coercible to a common supertype.

Return Data Type

Supertype of expr[, ...].

Examples

SELECT COALESCE('A', 'B', 'C') as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| A      |
+--------+

SELECT COALESCE(NULL, 'B', 'C') as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| B      |
+--------+

IF

IF(expr, true_result, else_result)

Description

If expr is true, returns true_result, else returns else_result. else_result is not evaluated if expr is true. true_result is not evaluated if expr is false or NULL.

expr must be a boolean expression. true_result and else_result must be coercible to a common supertype.

Return Data Type

Supertype of true_result and else_result.

Example

WITH Numbers AS
 (SELECT 10 as A, 20 as B UNION ALL
  SELECT 50, 30 UNION ALL
  SELECT 60, 60)
SELECT
  A, B,
  IF( A<B, 'true', 'false') as result
FROM Numbers

+------------------+
| A  | B  | result |
+------------------+
| 10 | 20 | true   |
| 50 | 30 | false  |
| 60 | 60 | false  |
+------------------+

IFNULL

IFNULL(expr, null_result)

Description

If expr is NULL, return null_result. Otherwise, return expr. If expr is not NULL, null_result is not evaluated.

expr and null_result can be any type and must be implicitly coercible to a common supertype. Synonym for COALESCE(expr, null_result).

Return Data Type

Supertype of expr or null_result.

Examples

SELECT IFNULL(NULL, 0) as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| 0      |
+--------+

SELECT IFNULL(10, 0) as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| 10     |
+--------+

NULLIF

NULLIF(expr, expr_to_match)

Description

Returns NULL if expr = expr_to_match is true, otherwise returns expr.

expr and expr_to_match must be implicitly coercible to a common supertype, and must be comparable.

NULLIF does not support STRUCT types.

Return Data Type

Supertype of expr and expr_to_match.

Example

SELECT NULLIF(0, 0) as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| NULL   |
+--------+

SELECT NULLIF(10, 0) as result

+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| 10     |
+--------+