CASE vs. IF/ELSE in T-SQL ISNULL

• mxdotnet

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  Points: 249

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  May 2, 2011 at 2:44 pm

  #236646

  I am truncated with some T-SQL statements.

  The objective is to check for an empty string AND a Null value within a specific column of data in a row.

  Take my example below:

  CREATE PROCEDURE getIDs

  @globalID varChar(50)

  SELECT DISTINCT ISNULL(1stID, 2ndID) theID

  FROM dbo.tableName

  WHERE globalID = @globalID

  -- What I have here is code that check to see if the 1stID is Null and if so, check the 2ndID and call it 'theID'...

  -- What I need now is to also check to see if the 1stID or 2ndID returns empty or nothing in the column, in addition to NULL

  I was pondering on using CASE statements then also IF/Else... but obviously became truncated.:w00t:

  any ideas? examples?

• ChrisM@home

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  May 2, 2011 at 3:35 pm

  #1318769

  IF / ELSE is conditional processing of statements, so CASE would better match your requirements.

  You will need to provide a more complete explanation of conditions and outcomes for a viable solution.

  [theID] = CASE

  WHEN 1stID IS NULL AND ... THEN ...

  WHEN 1stID = '' THEN ...

  WHEN 2ndID IS NULL THEN ...

  WHEN 2ndID = '' THEN ...

  ELSE ... END

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• mxdotnet

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  May 2, 2011 at 8:38 pm

  #1318834

  turns out CASE worked...I knew not its use and correct syntax.

  thanks!