Tutorials References Menu
HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT SQL PYTHON PHP BOOTSTRAP HOW TO W3.CSS JAVA JQUERY C++ C# R

MySQL Tutorial

MySQL HOME MySQL Intro MySQL RDBMS

MySQL SQL

MySQL SQL MySQL SELECT MySQL WHERE MySQL AND, OR, NOT MySQL ORDER BY MySQL INSERT INTO MySQL NULL Values MySQL UPDATE MySQL DELETE MySQL LIMIT MySQL MIN and MAX MySQL COUNT, AVG, SUM MySQL LIKE MySQL Wildcards MySQL IN MySQL BETWEEN MySQL Aliases MySQL Joins MySQL INNER JOIN MySQL LEFT JOIN MySQL RIGHT JOIN MySQL CROSS JOIN MySQL Self Join MySQL UNION MySQL GROUP BY MySQL HAVING MySQL EXISTS MySQL ANY, ALL MySQL INSERT SELECT MySQL CASE MySQL Null Functions MySQL Comments MySQL Operators

MySQL Database

MySQL Create DB MySQL Drop DB MySQL Create Table MySQL Drop Table MySQL Alter Table MySQL Constraints MySQL Not Null MySQL Unique MySQL Primary Key MySQL Foreign Key MySQL Check MySQL Default MySQL Create Index MySQL Auto Increment MySQL Dates MySQL Views

MySQL References

MySQL Data Types MySQL Functions
String Functions ASCII CHAR_LENGTH CHARACTER_LENGTH CONCAT CONCAT_WS FIELD FIND_IN_SET FORMAT INSERT INSTR LCASE LEFT LENGTH LOCATE LOWER LPAD LTRIM MID POSITION REPEAT REPLACE REVERSE RIGHT RPAD RTRIM SPACE STRCMP SUBSTR SUBSTRING SUBSTRING_INDEX TRIM UCASE UPPER Numeric Functions ABS ACOS ASIN ATAN ATAN2 AVG CEIL CEILING COS COT COUNT DEGREES DIV EXP FLOOR GREATEST LEAST LN LOG LOG10 LOG2 MAX MIN MOD PI POW POWER RADIANS RAND ROUND SIGN SIN SQRT SUM TAN TRUNCATE Date Functions ADDDATE ADDTIME CURDATE CURRENT_DATE CURRENT_TIME CURRENT_TIMESTAMP CURTIME DATE DATEDIFF DATE_ADD DATE_FORMAT DATE_SUB DAY DAYNAME DAYOFMONTH DAYOFWEEK DAYOFYEAR EXTRACT FROM_DAYS HOUR LAST_DAY LOCALTIME LOCALTIMESTAMP MAKEDATE MAKETIME MICROSECOND MINUTE MONTH MONTHNAME NOW PERIOD_ADD PERIOD_DIFF QUARTER SECOND SEC_TO_TIME STR_TO_DATE SUBDATE SUBTIME SYSDATE TIME TIME_FORMAT TIME_TO_SEC TIMEDIFF TIMESTAMP TO_DAYS WEEK WEEKDAY WEEKOFYEAR YEAR YEARWEEK Advanced Functions BIN BINARY CASE CAST COALESCE CONNECTION_ID CONV CONVERT CURRENT_USER DATABASE IF IFNULL ISNULL LAST_INSERT_ID NULLIF SESSION_USER SYSTEM_USER USER VERSION

MySQL Examples

MySQL Examples

MySQL NULL Values

❮ Previous Next ❯

What is a NULL Value?

A field with a NULL value is a field with no value.

If a field in a table is optional, it is possible to insert a new record or update a record without adding a value to this field. Then, the field will be saved with a NULL value.

Note: A NULL value is different from a zero value or a field that contains spaces. A field with a NULL value is one that has been left blank during record creation!

How to Test for NULL Values?

It is not possible to test for NULL values with comparison operators, such as =, <, or <>.

We will have to use the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators instead.

IS NULL Syntax

SELECT column_names
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IS NULL;

IS NOT NULL Syntax

SELECT column_names
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IS NOT NULL;

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country
1

 Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Avda. de la Constitución 2222 México D.F. 05021 Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México D.F. 05023 Mexico
4

 Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK
5 Berglunds snabbköp Christina Berglund Berguvsvägen 8 Luleå S-958 22 Sweden

The IS NULL Operator

The IS NULL operator is used to test for empty values (NULL values).

The following SQL lists all customers with a NULL value in the "Address" field:

Example

SELECT CustomerName, ContactName, Address
FROM Customers
WHERE Address IS NULL;
Try it Yourself »

Tip: Always use IS NULL to look for NULL values.

The IS NOT NULL Operator

The IS NOT NULL operator is used to test for non-empty values (NOT NULL values).

The following SQL lists all customers with a value in the "Address" field:

Example

SELECT CustomerName, ContactName, Address
FROM Customers
WHERE Address IS NOT NULL;
Try it Yourself »

❮ Previous Next ❯