MySQL CASE Statement
Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use MySQL CASE
statements to construct complex conditional statements inside stored procedures.
Besides the IF
the statement, MySQL provides an alternative conditional statement called the CASE
statement for constructing conditional statements in stored procedures. The CASE
statements make the code more readable and efficient.
The CASE
the statement has two forms: simpleCASE
and searched CASE
statements.
Note that if you want to add the if-else logic to an SQL statement, you use the CASE
expression which is different from the CASE
the statement described in this tutorial.
Simple CASE
statement
The following is the basic syntax of the simple CASE
statement:
CASE case_value
WHEN when_value1 THEN statements
WHEN when_value2 THEN statements
...
[ELSE else-statements]
END CASE;
In this syntax, the simple CASE
statement sequentially compares the case_value
is with the when_value1
, when_value2
, … until it finds one is equal. When the CASE
finds a case_value
equal to a when_value
, it executes statements
in the corresponding THEN
clause.
If CASE
cannot find any when_value
equal to the case_value
, it executes the else-statements
in the ELSE
clause if the ELSE
a clause is available.
When the ELSE
the clause does not exist and the CASE
cannot find any when_value
equal to the case_value
, it issues an error:
Case not found for CASE statement
Note that the case_value
can be a literal value or an expression. The statements
can be one or more SQL statements, and cannot have zero statements.
To avoid the error when the case_value
does not equal any when_value
, you can use an empty BEGIN END
block in the ELSE
clause as follows:
CASE case_value
WHEN when_value1 THEN ...
WHEN when_value2 THEN ...
ELSE
BEGIN
END;
END CASE;
The simple CASE
statement tests for equality ( =
), you cannot use it to test equality with NULL
; because NULL
= NULL
returns FALSE
.
Simple CASE
statement example
The following stored procedure illustrates how to use the simple CASE
statement:
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE GetCustomerShipping(
IN pCustomerNUmber INT,
OUT pShipping VARCHAR(50)
)
BEGIN
DECLARE customerCountry VARCHAR(100);
SELECT
country
INTO customerCountry FROM
customers
WHERE
customerNumber = pCustomerNUmber;
CASE customerCountry
WHEN 'USA' THEN
SET pShipping = '2-day Shipping';
WHEN 'Canada' THEN
SET pShipping = '3-day Shipping';
ELSE
SET pShipping = '5-day Shipping';
END CASE;
END$$
DELIMITER ;
How it works.
The GetCustomerShipping()
stored procedure accepts two parameters: pCustomerNumber
as an IN
parameter and pShipping
as an OUT
parameter.
In the stored procedure:
First, select the country of the customer from the customers
table by the input customer number.
Second, use the simple CASE
statement to determine the shipping time based on the country of the customer. If the customer locates in USA
, the shipping time is 2-day shipping
. If the customer locates in Canada
, the shipping time is 3-day shipping
. The customers from other countries have 5-day shipping
.
The following flowchart demonstrates the logic of the CASE statement for determining the shipping time:
This statement calls the stored procedure and passes the customer number 112:
CALL GetCustomerShipping(112,@shipping);
The following statement returns the shipping time of the customer 112:
SELECT @shipping;
Here is the output:
+----------------+
| @shipping |
+----------------+
| 2-day Shipping |
+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Searched CASE
statement
The simple CASE
the statement only allows you to compare a value with a set of distinct values.
To perform more complex matches such as ranges, you use the search CASE
statement. The searched CASE
the statement is equivalent to the IF
the statement, however, it’s much more readable than the IF
statement.
Here is the basic syntax of the searched CASE
statement:
CASE
WHEN search_condition1 THEN statements
WHEN search_condition1 THEN statements
...
[ELSE else-statements]
END CASE;
In this syntax, searched CASE
evaluates each search_condition
in the WHEN
clause until it finds a condition that evaluates to TRUE
, then it executes the corresponding THEN
clause statements
.
If no search_condition
evaluates to TRUE
, the CASE
will execute else-statements
in the ELSE
clause if an ELSE
a clause is available.
Similar to the simple CASE
the statement, if you don’t specify an ELSE
clause and no condition is TRUE
, MySQL raises the same error:
Case not found for CASE statement
MySQL also does not allow you to have empty statements
in the THEN
or ELSE
clause. If you don’t want to handle the logic in the ELSE
clause while preventing MySQL from raising an error in case no search_condition
is true, you can use an empty BEGIN END
block in the ELSE
clause.
Searched CASE
statement example
The following example demonstrates how to use a search CASE
statement to find customer level SILVER
, GOLD
or PLATINUM
based on the customer’s credit limit.
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE GetDeliveryStatus(
IN pOrderNumber INT,
OUT pDeliveryStatus VARCHAR(100)
)
BEGIN
DECLARE waitingDay INT DEFAULT 0;
SELECT
DATEDIFF(requiredDate, shippedDate)
INTO waitingDay
FROM orders
WHERE orderNumber = pOrderNumber;
CASE
WHEN waitingDay = 0 THEN
SET pDeliveryStatus = 'On Time';
WHEN waitingDay >= 1 AND waitingDay < 5 THEN
SET pDeliveryStatus = 'Late';
WHEN waitingDay >= 5 THEN
SET pDeliveryStatus = 'Very Late';
ELSE
SET pDeliveryStatus = 'No Information';
END CASE;
END$$
DELIMITER ;
How it works.
The stored procedure GetDeliveryStatus()
accepts an order number as an IN
parameter and returns the delivery status as an OUT
parameter.
First, calculate the number of days between the required date and the shipped date.
Second, determine the delivery status based on the number of waiting days using the searched CASE
statement:
- If the number of waiting days is zero, then the delivery is on time.
- When the number of waiting days is between 1 and 5, the delivery is late.
- When the number of waiting days is more than 5 days, then the delivery is very late.
- If the number of waiting days is NULL or else, the delivery has the status of no information specified in the
ELSE
clause.
This statement uses the stored procedure GetDeliveryStatus()
to get the delivery status of the order 10100
:
CALL GetDeliveryStatus(10100,@delivery);
Here is the result:
MySQL CASE
vs. IF
Both IF
and CASE
statements allow you to execute a block of code based on a specific condition. Choosing between IF
or CASE
sometimes is just a matter of personal preference. Here are some guidelines:
- A simple
CASE
the statement is more readable and efficient than anIF
statement when you compare a single expression against a range of unique values. - When you check complex expressions based on multiple values, the
IF
the statement is easier to understand. - If you use the
CASE
the statement, you have to make sure that at least one of theCASE
condition is matched. Otherwise, you need to define an error handler to catch the error. Note that you do not have to do this with theIF
statement. - In some situations, you can use both
IF
andCASE
to make the code more readable and efficient.
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use two forms of the MySQL CASE
statements including simple CASE
statement and searched CASE
statement.
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