Re: SQL ternary thing

Rory Browne wrote:

Hi I appreciate this is an SQL issue, more than a PHP issue, but since it isn't a DB specific issue, and I'm planning on using it with PHP(and I'm not subscribed to any SQL lists), I thought I'd post it here. I have a table a bit like the following: create table thing (name char(10), value boolean, name_if_true char(10), name_if_false(10)) Basicly what will be modified will be the value field. name_if_true, and name_if_false are static(and will in practice be in a different table). The table may look a bit like the following: | Accept | 0 | Yes | No | | Gender | 1 | Female | Male | State | 0 | Broken |fixed Can anyone suggest a query that will return: | Accept | No | Gender | Female | State | fixed Preferably in a db independent manner.

Look into the CASE statement. You can use it in the SELECT part of your query. MySQL also has an IF statement, but I believe that's not supported by other DBMS's. Something like: SELECT name, CASE value WHEN 1 THEN name_if_true WHEN 0 THEN name_if_false ELSE 'unknown' END AS result FROM thing; /Mattias