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Conditional expression functions

IS [ NOT ] NULL¶

Determines whether an expression is NULL or is not NULL.

Syntax¶

<expr> IS [ NOT ] NULL

Returns¶

Returns a BOOLEAN.

• When IS NULL is specified, the value is TRUE if the expression is NULL. Otherwise, returns FALSE.
• When IS NOT NULL is specified, the value is TRUE if the expression is not NULL. Otherwise, returns FALSE.

Examples¶

Create the test_is_not_null table and load the data:

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE test_is_not_null (id NUMBER, col1 NUMBER, col2 NUMBER);
INSERT INTO test_is_not_null (id, col1, col2) VALUES 
  (1, 0, 5), 
  (2, 0, NULL), 
  (3, NULL, 5), 
  (4, NULL, NULL);

Show the data in the test_is_not_null table:

SELECT * 
  FROM test_is_not_null
  ORDER BY id;

+----+------+------+
| ID | COL1 | COL2 |
|----+------+------|
|  1 |    0 |    5 |
|  2 |    0 | NULL |
|  3 | NULL |    5 |
|  4 | NULL | NULL |
+----+------+------+

Use IS NOT NULL to return the rows for which the values in col1 are not NULL:

SELECT * 
  FROM test_is_not_null 
  WHERE col1 IS NOT NULL
  ORDER BY id;

+----+------+------+
| ID | COL1 | COL2 |
|----+------+------|
|  1 |    0 |    5 |
|  2 |    0 | NULL |
+----+------+------+

Use IS NULL to return the rows for which the values in col2 are NULL:

SELECT * 
  FROM test_is_not_null 
  WHERE col2 IS NULL
  ORDER BY id;

+----+------+------+
| ID | COL1 | COL2 |
|----+------+------|
|  2 |    0 | NULL |
|  4 | NULL | NULL |
+----+------+------+

Use a combination of IS NOT NULL and IS NULL to return the rows for which either of the following conditions is met:

• The values in col1 are not NULL.
• The values in col2 are NULL.

SELECT * 
  FROM test_is_not_null 
  WHERE col1 IS NOT NULL OR col2 IS NULL
  ORDER BY id;

+----+------+------+
| ID | COL1 | COL2 |
|----+------+------|
|  1 |    0 |    5 |
|  2 |    0 | NULL |
|  4 | NULL | NULL |
+----+------+------+

Use a combination of IS NOT NULL and IS NULL to return the rows for which both of the following conditions are met:

• The values in col1 are not NULL.
• The values in col2 are NULL.

SELECT *
  FROM test_is_not_null
  WHERE col1 IS NOT NULL AND col2 IS NULL
  ORDER BY id;

+----+------+------+
| ID | COL1 | COL2 |
|----+------+------|
|  2 |    0 | NULL |
+----+------+------+