24 May 2022 Ignacio L. Bisso How to Use the COALESCE() Function in SQL SQL users are often faced with NULL values in their queries and need to process them properly. The COALESCE() function helps handle NULL values. Read this article to learn how to use COALESCE() in your queries. SQL tables store data in records, and records are composed of fields. There can be situations where we don’t know the value for a specific field. For example, let’s suppose we have a table with data for persons. Read more 14 May 2021 James Wondrasek How to Use Comparison Operators with NULLs in SQL The SQL NULL value serves a special purpose. It also comes with counterintuitive behaviors that can trip up SQL beginners or even experienced programmers. Learn how to avoid these problems when you use NULL with comparison operators. This article is going to help you master best practices for crafting SQL queries that work with NULL values and use comparison operators ( =, <>, <, > ) – which, if you have written any SQL queries before, you know is just about every query you will ever write! Read more 24 Mar 2021 Ignacio L. Bisso What Is a NOT NULL Constraint in SQL? SQL has several ways of dealing with NULLs. In this article, we’ll focus on the NOT NULL constraint and other NULL-related clauses. Understand this and you’ll take an important step in your SQL growth! Before we get straight into the NOT NULL constraint, let’s quickly define what NULLs and constraints are. NULL values are a central concept in SQL databases. The idea behind a NULL value is simple: a NULL value means that we do not have a known value for that field. Read more 7 Dec 2017 Ignacio L. Bisso The SQL Coalesce Function: Handling Null Values You may already know how to return null values in SQL. Now, we’re going to learn how to do the opposite. Though the SQL COALESCE function may seem complex, it’s actually very straightforward and useful. Let’s look at several examples of how the SQL COALESCE function can be used to work with NULL values in SQL. The Need for Coalesce in SQL Before we dive into the SQL COALESCE function in detail, you should understand how NULL values behave in expressions. Read more 29 May 2017 Aldo Zelen Useful SQL Patterns: Matching Nulls by Masking Nulls As you start coding in SQL, you will use some statements and techniques over and over again. We call these “SQL patterns”. This series will look at the most common SQL patterns and consider how to use them. In database development, SQL developers often find themselves returning to the same SQL statements. Learning about these now, early in your SQL journey, will help you work more efficiently. Today, in the first post of this series, we will consider the match by null SQL pattern related to SQL data matching. Read more 27 Apr 2017 Maria Alcaraz NULL Values and the GROUP BY Clause We've already covered how to use the GROUP BY clause and some aggregation functions like SUM(), AVG(), MAX(), MIN(), COUNT(). In this article, we will explain how the GROUP BY clause works when NULL values are involved. We will also explain about using NULLs with the ORDER BY clause. The best way to master GROUP BY and NULL in SQL is through practice. I recommend the SQL Practice track at LearnSQL. Read more 15 Mar 2017 Maria Alcaraz Understanding the Use of NULL in SQL Three-Valued Logic NULLs are necessary in relational databases, and learning to use them is fundamental to SQL success. However, NULLs should also be handled with care, as we explain in this post. In relational databases, we don’t always have a value to put in a column. For example, suppose we have a table called “persons” that has “first_name”, “last_name”, “birth_date” and “marriage_date” columns. What value will we store in the “marriage_date” column for single persons? Read more 20 Oct 2016 Patrycja Dybka How to Tackle SQL NULLs: COALESCE function It's inevitable that some data in the database has no value what in SQL is represented by the NULL keyword. "No value" here is different from zero, false, or an empty string (but with exceptions! In Oracle database, NULL is the same as string of zero length). During playing with the database, treating NULLs are becoming more and more troublesome, therefore MySQL standard provides help with some of the functions, like COALESCE. Read more