NULL values often generate unexpected results when they
appear in SQL queries. This is because not always these NULL values are
understood. So, what about those NULL values?
LNNVL
NULLIF
NVL
NVL2
It’s probably best to begin with a few words
about what NULL is NOT:
·
NULL is not the number 0
·
NULL is not the empty string
NULL is a special placeholder in SQL used to indicate that
the value does not exist in the database, that the value is unknown.
Now let’s explore some unknown NULL values!
·
Comparison with null values is done with special
syntax IS NULL or IS NOT NULL, and doesn’t use
comparison operands like =, <>, >, <.
select employee_id from employees where
manager_id=NULL;
no rows selected
SQL> select employee_id from employees where manager_id
IS NULL;
EMPLOYEE_ID
-----------
100
·
Because the value of NULL values is unknown,
unknown is also the result of any operation with NULL.
select 5+7+null+9 as suma from dual;
SUMA
----------
NULL
·
The truth table is also influenced by NULL
values as follows, an interesting case being FALSE or NULL = NULL:
Bool1 Bool2 AND OR
TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE
TRUE FALSE FALSE TRUE
TRUE NULL NULL TRUE
FALSE TRUE FALSE TRUE
FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
FALSE NULL FALSE NULL
NULL TRUE NULL TRUE
NULL FALSE FALSE NULL
NULL NULL NULL NULL
·
To view how unknown NULL values are treated in
databases, let’s take the example of DEPARTMENTS table, where there are some
departments with no manager (manager_id is NULL).
SELECT * FROM DEPARTMENTS WHERE MANAGER_ID <= 200
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM DEPARTMENTS WHERE MANAGER_ID > 200;
This SQL, which is a UNION ALL
between 2 sets of data that covers all values for MANAGER_ID will not return
all departments, as someone would expect, but only those with a known
value for manager_id.
10 Administration 200 1700
30 Purchasing 114 1700
50 Shipping 121 1700
60 IT 103 1700
80 Sales 145 2700
90 Executive 100 1700
100 Finance 108 1700
20 Marketing 201 1700
40 Human
Resources 203 2700
70 Public
Relations 204 2700
110 Accounting 205 1700
·
Another thing that is related to the unknown
character of NULL values is that NULL values aren’t stored in INDEXES. This is
why queries having condition IS NULL
don’t use index, even if there is one defined for the column specified in
condition. On the contrary, the index is used in queries having conditions IS
NOT NULL.
select * from employees where
manager_id is null;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id |
Operation | Name | Rows
| Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT
STATEMENT | |
1 | 69 | 3
(0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMPLOYEES | 1 |
69 | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
select * from employees where
manager_id is not null;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id |
Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT
STATEMENT | | 107 |
7383 | 9
| 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| EMPLOYEES |
107 | 7383 | 9
|* 2 | INDEX FULL SCAN | EMP_MANAGER_IX | 107 |
| 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
·
In sorting operation, NULL values appear LAST
in ASC order and FIRST in DESC order.
select * from departments order by manager_id ASC;
90 Executive 100 1700
60 IT
103 1700
…….
110 Accounting 205 1700
230 IT Helpdesk NULL 1700
240 Government Sales NULL 1700
……
140 Control And Credit NULL 1700
select * from departments order by manager_id DESC;
140 Control And Credit NULL 1700
………
160 Benefits NULL 1700
110 Accounting 205 1700
……
90 Executive 100 1700
·
All aggregate
functions except
COUNT(*) and GROUPING ignore nulls.
You can use the NVL function in the argument to an aggregate function to
substitute a value for a null. COUNT never returns null, but returns either a number or zero. For
all the remaining aggregate functions, if the data set contains no rows, or
contains only rows with nulls as arguments to the aggregate function, then the
function returns null.
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DEPARTMENTS;
COUNT(*)
----------
27
SQL> select count(manager_id) from departments;
COUNT(MANAGER_ID)
-----------------
11
select min(manager_id) from departments;
MIN(MANAGER_ID)
---------------
100
SQL> select max(manager_id) from departments;
MAX(MANAGER_ID)
---------------
205
·
NULL does not equal NULL or other value
select * from a;
C1 C2
---------- ----------
1 1
1 2
1 NULL
NULL NULL
select * from a where c1=c2;
C1 C2
---------- ----------
1
1
·
The NULL-related
functions facilitate null handling. The NULL-related functions are:
COALESCE
·
Null have different behavior in NOT IN and NOT EXISTS.
Take, for example, the case of returning all employees that has no managers:
SELECT * FROM HR.EMPLOYEES WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID NOT IN
( SELECT MANAGER_ID FROM HR.EMPLOYEES );
no rows selected
SELECT * FROM HR.EMPLOYEES E1 WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1 FROM HR.EMPLOYEES E2 WHERE E2.EMPLOYEE_ID = E1.MANAGER_ID);
100
Steven King
SKING 515.123.4567 17-JUN-98 AD_PRES 24000
90
or departments with no employees:
SELECT department_id FROM hr.departments
WHERE department_id
NOT IN (SELECT department_id FROM HR.EMPLOYEES);
no rows selected
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID FROM HR.DEPARTMENTS d
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM HR.EMPLOYEES e where e.department_id =
d.department_id);
DEPARTMENT_ID
-------------
120
130
140
………
As you can see, this happens because
one or more values in NOT IN clause are NULL (UNKNOWN), and the predicate department_id NOT IN (x,y,NULL) evaluates to neither TRUE, nor FALSE,
but to UNKNOWN (NULL).
This is why, NOT IN can be used if all
the values that must be evaluated differ from NULL value.
As a conclusion of this short intro, the existence of NULL values
into a database introduces a new degree of uncertainty. If not understood, a
lot of guessing must be done by an SQL programmer to counter for erroneous
results of NULL values in a database.
