Determine Oracle null == null

I wish to search a database table on a nullable column. Sometimes the value I'm search for is itself NULL. Since Null is equal to nothing, even NULL, saying

where MYCOLUMN=SEARCHVALUE 

will fail. Right now I have to resort to

where ((MYCOLUMN=SEARCHVALUE) OR (MYCOLUMN is NULL and SEARCHVALUE is NULL))

Is there a simpler way of saying that?

(I'm using Oracle if that matters)

Solution 1:

You can do the IsNull or NVL stuff, but it's just going to make the engine do more work. You'll be calling functions to do column conversions which then have to have the results compared.

Use what you have

where ((MYCOLUMN=SEARCHVALUE) OR (MYCOLUMN is NULL and SEARCHVALUE is NULL))

Solution 2:

@Andy Lester asserts that the original form of the query is more efficient than using NVL. I decided to test that assertion:

    SQL> DECLARE
      2    CURSOR B IS
      3       SELECT batch_id, equipment_id
      4         FROM batch;
      5    v_t1  NUMBER;
      6    v_t2  NUMBER;
      7    v_c1  NUMBER;
      8    v_c2  NUMBER;
      9    v_b   INTEGER;
     10  BEGIN
     11  -- Form 1 of the where clause
     12    v_t1 := dbms_utility.get_time;
     13    v_c1 := dbms_utility.get_cpu_time;
     14    FOR R IN B LOOP
     15       SELECT COUNT(*)
     16         INTO v_b
     17         FROM batch
     18        WHERE equipment_id = R.equipment_id OR (equipment_id IS NULL AND R.equipment_id IS NULL);
     19    END LOOP;
     20    v_t2 := dbms_utility.get_time;
     21    v_c2 := dbms_utility.get_cpu_time;
     22    dbms_output.put_line('For clause: WHERE equipment_id = R.equipment_id OR (equipment_id IS NULL AND R.equipment_id IS NULL)');
     23    dbms_output.put_line('CPU seconds used: '||(v_c2 - v_c1)/100);
     24    dbms_output.put_line('Elapsed time: '||(v_t2 - v_t1)/100);
     25  
     26  -- Form 2 of the where clause
     27    v_t1 := dbms_utility.get_time;
     28    v_c1 := dbms_utility.get_cpu_time;
     29    FOR R IN B LOOP
     30       SELECT COUNT(*)
     31         INTO v_b
     32         FROM batch
     33        WHERE NVL(equipment_id,'xxxx') = NVL(R.equipment_id,'xxxx');
     34    END LOOP;
     35    v_t2 := dbms_utility.get_time;
     36    v_c2 := dbms_utility.get_cpu_time;
     37    dbms_output.put_line('For clause: WHERE NVL(equipment_id,''xxxx'') = NVL(R.equipment_id,''xxxx'')');
     38    dbms_output.put_line('CPU seconds used: '||(v_c2 - v_c1)/100);
     39    dbms_output.put_line('Elapsed time: '||(v_t2 - v_t1)/100);
     40  END;
     41  /


    For clause: WHERE equipment_id = R.equipment_id OR (equipment_id IS NULL AND R.equipment_id IS NULL)
    CPU seconds used: 84.69
    Elapsed time: 84.8
    For clause: WHERE NVL(equipment_id,'xxxx') = NVL(R.equipment_id,'xxxx')
    CPU seconds used: 124
    Elapsed time: 124.01

    PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

    SQL> select count(*) from batch;

  COUNT(*)
----------
     20903

SQL> 

I was kind of surprised to find out just how correct Andy is. It costs nearly 50% more to do the NVL solution. So, even though one piece of code might not look as tidy or elegant as another, it could be significantly more efficient. I ran this procedure multiple times, and the results were nearly the same each time. Kudos to Andy...

Solution 3:

In Expert Oracle Database Architecture I saw:

WHERE DECODE(MYCOLUMN, SEARCHVALUE, 1) = 1

Solution 4:

I don't know if it's simpler, but I've occasionally used

WHERE ISNULL(MyColumn, -1) = ISNULL(SearchValue, -1)

Replacing "-1" with some value that is valid for the column type but also not likely to be actually found in the data.

NOTE: I use MS SQL, not Oracle, so not sure if "ISNULL" is valid.