Login

The MySQL CASE Statement

The CASE statement goes through conditions and returns a value when the first condition is met (like an if-then-else statement). So, once a condition is true, it will stop reading and return the result. If no conditions are true, it returns the value in the ELSE clause.

If there is no ELSE part and no conditions are true, it returns NULL.

CASE Syntax

CASE
    WHEN condition1 THEN result1
    WHEN condition2 THEN result2
    WHEN conditionN THEN resultN
    ELSE result
END;

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "OrderDetails" table in the Northwind sample database:

OrderDetailID OrderID ProductID Quantity
1 10248 11 12
2 10248 42 10
3 10248 72 5
4 10249 14 9
5 10249 51 40

MySQL CASE Examples

The following SQL goes through conditions and returns a value when the first condition is met:

Example

SELECT OrderID, Quantity,
CASE
    WHEN Quantity > 30 THEN 'The quantity is greater than 30'
    WHEN Quantity = 30 THEN 'The quantity is 30'
    ELSE 'The quantity is under 30'
END AS QuantityText
FROM OrderDetails;

The following SQL will order the customers by City. However, if City is NULL, then order by Country:

Example

SELECT CustomerName, City, Country
FROM Customers
ORDER BY
(CASE
    WHEN City IS NULL THEN Country
    ELSE City
END);

Login
ADS CODE