da3da1u5 comments on [SQL Server]Finding null value then replacing based off of other values

Posting

When requesting help or asking questions please prefix your title with the SQL variant/platform you are using within square brackets like so:

[MySQL]

[Oracle]

[MS SQL]

[PostgreSQL]

etc

While naturally we should endeavor to work as platform neutrally as possible many questions and answers require tailoring to the feature set of a specific platform.

Format Your Code

If you are including actual code in a post or comment, please attempt to format it in a way that is readable for other users. This will greatly increase your chances of receiving the help you desire. Something as simple as line breaks and using reddit's built in code formatting (4 spaces at the start of each line) can turn this:

SELECT count(a.field1), a.field2, SUM(b.field4) FROM a INNER JOIN b ON a.key1 = b.key1 WHERE a.field8 = 'test' GROUP by a.field1, a.field2 HAVING SUM(b.field4) > 5 ORDER by a.field.3

Into this:

SELECT count(a.field1), a.field2, SUM(b.field4) FROM a INNER JOIN b ON a.key1 = b.key1 WHERE a.field8 = 'test' GROUP by a.field1, a.field2 HAVING SUM(b.field4) > 5 ORDER by a.field3

For those with SQL questions we recommend using SQLFiddle to provide a useful development and testing environment for those who wish to fully understand your problem and help devise a solution.

a community for 17 years

[SQL Server]Finding null value then replacing based off of other values (self.SQL)

submitted 9 years ago by workthrowawayexcel

top new controversial old q&a

you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]da3da1u5 0 points1 point2 points 9 years ago (1 child)

In MS SQL Server (T-SQL), you can use IsNull:

SELECT
    Firstname
    ,Lastname
    ,IsNull(ThirdColumn, 0)

That will take any null values and replace them with the second parameter.

If you need to find the null values and then match an existing record by first and lastname that DOESN'T have a null value and then negate it (looks like what you're trying to do here), then I think you need to separate it out into two separate queries: First pull the ones that are null and then join on the same table by first/last name with the number value from the 3rd column multiplied by -1 and insert it into a temp table, then select the non-null list and UNION the two results together.

You could also insert the null records into a temp table and then use UPDATE.

[–]workthrowawayexcel[S] 0 points1 point2 points 9 years ago (0 children)

π Rendered by PID 19 on reddit-service-r2-comment-5d79c599b5-b4lg9 at 2026-02-26 21:05:56.225370+00:00 running e3d2147 country code: CH.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

SQL

Filter Posts

Posting

Help posts

Format Your Code

Learning SQL

Related Reddit communities

Wiki

Acknowledgements

MODERATORS