Conditional Expressions

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CASE

The standard SQL CASE expression has two forms. The “simple” form searches each value expression from left to right until it finds one that equals expression:

CASE expression
    WHEN value THEN result
    [ WHEN ... ]
    [ ELSE result ]
END

The result for the matching value is returned. If no match is found, the result from the ELSE clause is returned if it exists, otherwise null is returned. Example:

SELECT a,
       CASE a
           WHEN 1 THEN 'one'
           WHEN 2 THEN 'two'
           ELSE 'many'
       END

The “searched” form evaluates each boolean condition from left to right until one is true and returns the matching result:

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

If no conditions are true, the result from the ELSE clause is returned if it exists, otherwise null is returned. Example:

SELECT a, b,
       CASE
           WHEN a = 1 THEN 'aaa'
           WHEN b = 2 THEN 'bbb'
           ELSE 'ccc'
       END

SQL routines can use CASE statements that use a slightly different syntax from the CASE expressions. Specifically note the requirements for terminating each clause with a semicolon ; and the usage of END CASE.

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IF

The IF expression has two forms, one supplying only a true_value and the other supplying both a true_value and a false_value:

if(condition, true_value)

Evaluates and returns true_value if condition is true, otherwise null is returned and true_value is not evaluated.

if(condition, true_value, false_value)

Evaluates and returns true_value if condition is true, otherwise evaluates and returns false_value.

The following IF and CASE expressions are equivalent:

SELECT
  orderkey,
  totalprice,
  IF(totalprice >= 150000, 'High Value', 'Low Value')
FROM tpch.sf1.orders;

SELECT
  orderkey,
  totalprice,
  CASE
    WHEN totalprice >= 150000 THEN 'High Value'
    ELSE 'Low Value'
  END
FROM tpch.sf1.orders;

SQL routines can use IF statements that use a slightly different syntax from IF expressions. Specifically note the requirement for terminating each clause with a semicolon ; and the usage of END IF.

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COALESCE

coalesce(value1, value2[, ...])

Returns the first non-null value in the argument list. Like a CASE expression, arguments are only evaluated if necessary.

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NULLIF

nullif(value1, value2)

Returns null if value1 equals value2, otherwise returns value1.

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TRY

try(expression)

Evaluate an expression and handle certain types of errors by returning NULL.

In cases where it is preferable that queries produce NULL or default values instead of failing when corrupt or invalid data is encountered, the TRY function may be useful. To specify default values, the TRY function can be used in conjunction with the COALESCE function.

The following errors are handled by TRY:

• Division by zero
• Invalid cast or function argument
• Numeric value out of range

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Examples

Source table with some invalid data:

SELECT * FROM shipping;

 origin_state | origin_zip | packages | total_cost
--------------+------------+----------+------------
 California   |      94131 |       25 |        100
 California   |      P332a |        5 |         72
 California   |      94025 |        0 |        155
 New Jersey   |      08544 |      225 |        490
(4 rows)

Query failure without TRY:

SELECT CAST(origin_zip AS BIGINT) FROM shipping;

Query failed: Cannot cast 'P332a' to BIGINT

NULL values with TRY:

SELECT TRY(CAST(origin_zip AS BIGINT)) FROM shipping;

 origin_zip
------------
      94131
 NULL
      94025
      08544
(4 rows)

Query failure without TRY:

SELECT total_cost / packages AS per_package FROM shipping;

Query failed: Division by zero

Default values with TRY and COALESCE:

SELECT COALESCE(TRY(total_cost / packages), 0) AS per_package FROM shipping;

 per_package
-------------
          4
         14
          0
         19
(4 rows)