Oracle: Case Statement

Starting in Oracle 9i, you can use the case statement within an SQL statement. It has the functionality of an IF-THEN-ELSE statement.

The syntax for the case statement is:

CASE  [ expression ]
  WHEN condition_1 THEN result_1
  WHEN condition_2 THEN result_2
  ...
  WHEN condition_n THEN result_n
  ELSE result
END

expression is optional. It is the value that you are comparing to the list of conditions. (ie: condition_1, condition_2, ... condition_n)

condition_1 to condition_n must all be the same datatype. Conditions are evaluated in the order listed. Once a condition is found to be true, the case statement will return the result and not evaluate the conditions any further.

result_1 to result_n must all be the same datatype. This is the value returned once a condition is found to be true.

Note:

If no condition is found to be true, then the case statement will return the value in the ELSE clause.

If the ELSE clause is omitted and no condition is found to be true, then the case statement will return NULL.

You can have up to 255 comparisons in a case statement. Each WHEN ... THEN clause is considered 2 comparisons.

Applies To:

• Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g

For Example:

You could use the case statement in an SQL statement as follows: (includes the expression clause)

select table_name,
CASE owner
  WHEN 'SYS' THEN 'The owner is SYS'
  WHEN 'SYSTEM' THEN 'The owner is SYSTEM'
  ELSE 'The owner is another value'
END
from all_tables;

Or you could write the SQL statement using the case statement like this: (omits the expression clause)

select table_name,
CASE
  WHEN owner='SYS' THEN 'The owner is SYS'
  WHEN owner='SYSTEM' THEN 'The owner is SYSTEM'
  ELSE 'The owner is another value'
END
from all_tables;

The above two case statements are equivalent to the following IF-THEN-ELSE statement:

IF owner = 'SYS' THEN
     result := 'The owner is SYS';
ELSIF owner = 'SYSTEM' THEN
    result := 'The owner is SYSTEM'';
ELSE
    result := 'The owner is another value';
END IF;

The case statement will compare each owner value, one by one.

One thing to note is that the ELSE clause within the case statement is optional. You could have omitted it. Let's take a look at the SQL statement above with the ELSE clause omitted.

Your SQL statement would look as follows:

select table_name,
CASE owner
  WHEN 'SYS' THEN 'The owner is SYS'
  WHEN 'SYSTEM' THEN 'The owner is SYSTEM'
END
from all_tables;

With the ELSE clause omitted, if no condition was found to be true, the case statement would return NULL.

For Example:

Here is an example that demonstrates how to use the case statement to compare different conditions:

select
CASE
  WHEN a < b THEN 'hello'
  WHEN d < e THEN 'goodbye'
END
from suppliers;

Frequently Asked Questions

---

Question: Can you create a case statement that evaluates two different fields? I want to return a value based on the combinations in two different fields.

Answer: Yes, below is an example of a case statement that evaluates two different fields.

select supplier_id,
CASE
  WHEN supplier_name = 'IBM' and supplier_type = 'Hardware' THEN 'North office'
  WHEN supplier_name = 'IBM' and supplier_type = 'Software' THEN 'South office'
END
from suppliers;

So if supplier_name field is IBM and the supplier_type field is Hardware, then the case statement will return North office. If the supplier_name field is IBM and the supplier_type is Software, the case statement will return South office.

Fonte: http://www.techonthenet.com/oracle/functions/case.php

Oracle: Substr Function

In Oracle/PLSQL, the substr functions allows you to extract a substring from a string.

The syntax for the substr function is:

substr( string, start_position, [ length ] )

string is the source string.

start_position is the position for extraction. The first position in the string is always 1.

length is optional. It is the number of characters to extract. If this parameter is omitted, substr will return the entire string.

Note:

If start_position is 0, then substr treats start_position as 1 (ie: the first position in the string).

If start_position is a positive number, then substr starts from the beginning of the string.

If start_position is a negative number, then substr starts from the end of the string and counts backwards.

If length is a negative number, then substr will return a NULL value.

Applies To:

• Oracle 8i, Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g

For example:

substr('This is a test', 6, 2)	would return 'is'
substr('This is a test', 6)	would return 'is a test'
substr('TechOnTheNet', 1, 4)	would return 'Tech'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -3, 3)	would return 'Net'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -6, 3)	would return 'The'
substr('TechOnTheNet', -8, 2)	would return 'On'

Oracle: Grant Privileges on Tables

You can grant users various privileges to tables. These privileges can be any combination of select, insert, update, delete, references, alter, and index. Below is an explanation of what each privilege means.

Privilege	Description
Select	Ability to query the table with a select statement.
Insert	Ability to add new rows to the table with the insert statement.
Update	Ability to update rows in the table with the update statement.
Delete	Ability to delete rows from the table with the delete statement.
References	Ability to create a constraint that refers to the table.
Alter	Ability to change the table definition with the alter table statement.
Index	Ability to create an index on the table with the create index statement.

The syntax for granting privileges on a table is:

grant privileges on object to user;

For example, if you wanted to grant select, insert, update, and delete privileges on a table called suppliers to a user name smithj, you would execute the following statement:

grant select, insert, update, delete on suppliers to smithj;

You can also use the all keyword to indicate that you wish all permissions to be granted. For example:

grant all on suppliers to smithj;

If you wanted to grant select access on your table to all users, you could grant the privileges to the public keyword. For example:

grant select on suppliers to public;

Revoke Privileges on Tables

Once you have granted privileges, you may need to revoke some or all of these privileges. To do this, you can execute a revoke command. You can revoke any combination of select, insert, update, delete, references, alter, and index.

The syntax for revoking privileges on a table is:

revoke privileges on object from user;

For example, if you wanted to revoke delete privileges on a table called suppliers from a user named anderson, you would execute the following statement:

revoke delete on suppliers from anderson;

If you wanted to revoke all privileges on a table, you could use the all keyword. For example:

revoke all on suppliers from anderson;

If you had granted privileges to public (all users) and you wanted to revoke these privileges, you could execute the following statement:

revoke all on suppliers from public;

Grant Privileges on Functions/Procedures

When dealing with functions and procedures, you can grant users the ability to execute these functions and procedures. The Execute privilege is explained below:

Privilege	Description
Execute	Ability to compile the function/procedure. Ability to execute the function/procedure directly.

The syntax for granting execute privileges on a function/procedure is:

grant execute on object to user;

For example, if you had a function called Find_Value and you wanted to grant execute access to the user named smithj, you would execute the following statement:

grant execute on Find_Value to smithj;

If you wanted to grant all users the ability to execute this function, you would execute the following:

grant execute on Find_Value to public;

Revoke Privileges on Functions/Procedures

Once you have granted execute privileges on a function or procedure, you may need to revoke these privileges from a user. To do this, you can execute a revoke command.

The syntax for the revoking privileges on a function or procedure is:

revoke execute on object from user;

If you wanted to revoke execute privileges on a function called Find_Value from a user named anderson, you would execute the following statement:

revoke execute on Find_Value from anderson;

If you had granted privileges to public (all users) and you wanted to revoke these privileges, you could execute the following statement:

revoke execute on Find_Value from public;