Re: Oracle equivalent to DB2 NULLIF function?

The NVL function in Oracle is equivalent to the COALESCE function in DB2. NULLIF kind of does the opposite, returns a NULL if an expression evaluates to true. Let me tell you exactly what I am trying to do:

UPDATE mytable SET mycol = mycol - hostVariable;

What I want to do is automatically set mycol to NULL if the new value of mycol ends up being zero. I'll check out the DECODE function, thanks for the suggestion.

--
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hardy <aph_at_ahardy.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:Yvnk5GApeuj3Ewca_at_ahardy.demon.co.uk...
| In article <7mm0pa$esm$1_at_news.btv.ibm.com>, Jim Morgan
| <jjmorgan_at_us.ibm.com> writes
| >Anyone know if there is an Oracle equivalent to this DB2 function?
Thanks!
|
| What does NULLIF do?
|
| If it's a 'return null id its this value' then perhaps DECODE would
| suffice? e.g. DECODE (my_column, 'shouldbenull', NULL, my_column).
|
| If it's a 'return this value instead of a null' then try NVL e.g.
| NVL(my_column, 'it was a null value').
|
| Otherwise...
|
| Andy
| --
| Andy Hardy. PGP key available on request
| ===============================================================
Received on Fri Jul 16 1999 - 07:50:07 CDT