Chidiebere Ogujeiofor

Posted on Nov 20, 2019 • Updated on Feb 2, 2020

Just in CASE

#sql #postgres

I recently implemented a feature that required using the SQL CASE statement. Thus, I decided to write a post on the exciting capabilities of the SQL CASE statement. I would be using sample student result data which you can generate by running the SQL in this gist. Note that PostgreSQL is RDBMS used in this post but the CASE statement is similar in other RDBMS

What is the CASE statement

The CASE statement is the SQL way of creating conditional statements(if-else-then) when querying for column values. Here is the general structure of a CASE statement

CASE 
     WHEN {condition1} THEN {value1}
     WHEN {condition2} THEN {value2}
                  .
                  .
                  .
     WHEN {conditionN} THEN {valueN}
END

The CASE statement comes in handy when:

Categorizing data
Filtering data
Aggregating data
Updating data

I would explain each use case in subsequent sections using the student results data

Categorising data

Let's say we have a table results that contains student results in several courses as follows

student_id	subject	score
1	Arts	49
1	Biology	0
1	Chemistry	0
1	Computer Science	74
1	Economics	73
1	English Language	63
1	History	72
1	Literature	0
1	Mathematics	0
1	Physical Education	88
1	Physics	71
1	Statistics	14
2	Arts	76
2	Biology	78
2	Chemistry	73
2	Commerce	76
2	Computer Science	77
2	Economics	81
2	English Language	0
2	History	71
2	Literature	73
2	Mathematics	66
2	Physical Education	70
2	Physics	73
2	Statistics	91
4	Arts	70
4	Biology	77
4	Chemistry	71
4	Commerce	66
4	Computer Science	52
4	Economics	70
4	English Language	0
4	History	78
4	Literature	77
4	Mathematics	71
4	Physical Education	70
4	Physics	80
.	.	.
.	.	.
.	.	.
.	.	.

If the pass mark for each course is 60 then we can use the CASE statement to categorize this data by displaying "Passed" when the student passes and "Failed" when the student fails. Here is how it looks like:

SELECT  subject, student_id, score, 
    CASE 
        WHEN score >= 60 THEN 'Passed'
        ELSE 'Failed'
    END AS status
FROM results 

ORDER BY subject, score, status;

This would produce the following results:

subject	student_id	score	status
Arts	12	45	Failed
Arts	21	47	Failed
Arts	1	49	Failed
Arts	20	50	Failed
Arts	23	67	Passed
Arts	16	67	Passed
Arts	6	69	Passed
Arts	17	70	Passed
Arts	11	70	Passed
Arts	4	70	Passed
Arts	22	70	Passed
Arts	19	71	Passed
Arts	15	71	Passed
Arts	8	71	Passed
Arts	5	72	Passed
Arts	7	75	Passed
Arts	2	76	Passed
Arts	18	76	Passed
Arts	13	77	Passed
Arts	10	79	Passed
Arts	14	80	Passed
Arts	9	80	Passed
Arts	24	83	Passed
Biology	23	0	Failed
Biology	21	0	Failed
Biology	12	0	Failed
Biology	1	0	Failed
Biology	15	0	Failed
Biology	20	55	Failed
Biology	22	56	Failed
Biology	11	57	Failed
Biology	6	63	Passed
Biology	5	64	Passed
Biology	8	65	Passed
Biology	13	65	Passed
Biology	10	66	Passed
Biology	16	70	Passed
Biology	19	71	Passed
Biology	18	73	Passed
Biology	14	74	Passed
Biology	17	77	Passed
Biology	4	77	Passed
Biology	2	78	Passed
Biology	7	81	Passed
Biology	9	84	Passed
Biology	24	85	Passed
Chemistry	21	0	Failed
Chemistry	1	0	Failed
Chemistry	23	36	Failed
Chemistry	20	40	Failed
Chemistry	12	40	Failed
Chemistry	22	41	Failed
Chemistry	15	45	Failed
Chemistry	10	51	Failed
Chemistry	11	56	Failed
Chemistry	17	60	Passed
Chemistry	5	61	Passed
Chemistry	8	61	Passed
Chemistry	13	62	Passed
Chemistry	6	63	Passed
Chemistry	16	67	Passed
Chemistry	14	70	Passed
Chemistry	4	71	Passed
Chemistry	18	71	Passed
Chemistry	2	73	Passed
Chemistry	7	74	Passed
Chemistry	19	75	Passed
Chemistry	9	81	Passed
Chemistry	24	82	Passed
Commerce	12	44	Failed
Commerce	22	55	Failed
Commerce	15	60	Passed
Commerce	11	61	Passed
Commerce	21	62	Passed
.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.

Now we can see which student passed or failed each subject.

The CASE statement does not affect our other parts of our select statement above(although it can be used in other parts), thus we can decide to view the people that have passed/failed Statistics as follows:

SELECT student_id, subject, score, 
    CASE 
        WHEN score >= 60 THEN 'Passed'
        ELSE 'Failed'
    END AS status
FROM results 

WHERE subject = 'Statistics'
ORDER BY score
;

We get the following results

student_id	subject	score	status
1	Statistics	14	Failed
21	Statistics	48	Failed
22	Statistics	49	Failed
12	Statistics	52	Failed
6	Statistics	53	Failed
20	Statistics	54	Failed
15	Statistics	57	Failed
23	Statistics	57	Failed
13	Statistics	58	Failed
8	Statistics	60	Passed
14	Statistics	61	Passed
11	Statistics	62	Passed
18	Statistics	62	Passed
10	Statistics	65	Passed
5	Statistics	65	Passed
16	Statistics	66	Passed
4	Statistics	71	Passed
17	Statistics	76	Passed
7	Statistics	80	Passed
19	Statistics	80	Passed
9	Statistics	85	Passed
24	Statistics	88	Passed
2	Statistics	91	Passed

Now it is easy to see that there are quite a number of students that failed Statistics.

Adding more conditions to the CASE statement

Let's say we want to retrieve the grades(A, B, C,D, F) for each student in the Statistics course such that

an A is 90-100, a B is 80-89, a C is 70-79, a D is 60-69 and an F is <60. We can achieve that by using AND operator in the conditional part of our CASE statement as follows:

SELECT student_id, subject, score,  
    CASE 
        WHEN score >= 70 AND  score <= 79 THEN 'C'
        WHEN score >= 60 AND score <= 69 THEN 'D'
        WHEN score >= 90 THEN 'A'
        WHEN score >= 80 AND score <= 89  THEN 'B'

        ELSE 'F'
    END AS grade
FROM results
WHERE subject = 'Statistics'
ORDER BY score DESC
;
;

student_id	subject	score	grade
2	Statistics	91	A
24	Statistics	88	B
9	Statistics	85	B
7	Statistics	80	B
19	Statistics	80	B
17	Statistics	76	C
4	Statistics	71	C
16	Statistics	66	D
10	Statistics	65	D
5	Statistics	65	D
11	Statistics	62	D
18	Statistics	62	D
14	Statistics	61	D
8	Statistics	60	D
13	Statistics	58	F
15	Statistics	57	F
23	Statistics	57	F
20	Statistics	54	F
6	Statistics	53	F
12	Statistics	52	F
22	Statistics	49	F
21	Statistics	48	F
1	Statistics	14	F

You could also use the OR operator within the CASE statement. Also, note that the CASE statement checks the conditions in the order in which they were created thus the following CASE statement does the same thing as before:

CASE 
    WHEN score >= 90 THEN 'A'
    WHEN score >= 80 THEN 'B'
    WHEN score >= 70 THEN 'C'
    WHEN score >= 60 THEN 'D'


    ELSE 'F'
END AS grade

Aggregating data

COUNT

Let us say we want to retrieve the number of students that passed and the number that failed each subject. We can do that using the following query:


SELECT subject,

    COUNT(CASE 
        WHEN score >= 60 THEN 'Passed'
    END ) as number_of_success,

    COUNT(CASE 
        WHEN score < 60 THEN 'Failed'
    END ) as number_of_failure
FROM results 


GROUP BY subject
ORDER BY subject;

subject	number_of_success	number_of_failure
Arts	19	4
Biology	15	8
Chemistry	14	9
Commerce	20	2
Computer Science	19	4
Economics	22	1
English Language	16	6
History	21	2
Literature	21	2
Mathematics	21	2
Physical Education	23	0
Physics	23	0
Statistics	14	9

SUM

We can also get a similar result using the SUM function. This time we would be returning numbers (in this case 1 when the student passes and 0 otherwise) to the SUM function so that it can add all the numbers together.



SELECT subject,

    SUM(
        CASE 
            WHEN score >= 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END ) as number_of_success,

    SUM(
        CASE 
            WHEN score < 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END ) as number_of_failure
FROM results 


GROUP BY subject
ORDER BY subject;

subject	number_of_success	number_of_failure
Arts	19	4
Biology	15	8
Chemistry	14	9
Commerce	20	2
Computer Science	19	4
Economics	22	1
English Language	16	6
History	21	2
Literature	21	2
Mathematics	21	2
Physical Education	23	0
Physics	23	0
Statistics	14	9

Gives exactly the same result as before.

AVG

The CASE statement can be used along with the AVG function to get the percentage of a set of values. For example, we can use the following query to get what percentage of students passed and failed each subject:

SELECT subject,

    AVG(
        CASE 
            WHEN score >= 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END )* 100 AS percentage_passed,

    AVG(
        CASE 
            WHEN score < 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END )* 100 AS percentage_failed
FROM results 


GROUP BY subject;

subject	percentage_passed	percentage_failed
Arts	82.60869565217391304300	17.39130434782608695700
Biology	65.21739130434782608700	34.78260869565217391300
Chemistry	60.86956521739130434800	39.13043478260869565200
Commerce	90.90909090909090909100	9.09090909090909090900
Computer Science	82.60869565217391304300	17.39130434782608695700
Economics	95.65217391304347826100	4.34782608695652173900
English Language	72.72727272727272727300	27.27272727272727272700
History	91.30434782608695652200	8.69565217391304347800
Literature	91.30434782608695652200	8.69565217391304347800
Mathematics	91.30434782608695652200	8.69565217391304347800
Physical Education	100.00000000000000000000	0.00000000000000000000
Physics	100.00000000000000000000	0.00000000000000000000
Statistics	60.86956521739130434800	39.13043478260869565200

To make the result more readable let us round to 2 d.p:

SELECT subject,

    ROUND(AVG(
        CASE 
            WHEN score >= 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END )* 100 , 2) AS percentage_passed,

    ROUND(AVG(
        CASE 
            WHEN score < 60 THEN 1
            ELSE 0
        END )* 100 , 2) AS percentage_failed
FROM results 


GROUP BY subject
ORDER BY subject;

subject	percentage_passed	percentage_failed
Arts	82.61	17.39
Biology	65.22	34.78
Chemistry	60.87	39.13
Commerce	90.91	9.09
Computer Science	82.61	17.39
Economics	95.65	4.35
English Language	72.73	27.27
History	91.30	8.70
Literature	91.30	8.70
Mathematics	91.30	8.70
Physical Education	100.00	0.00
Physics	100.00	0.00
Statistics	60.87	39.13

Any other aggregation function

You can use any other aggregation function with the CASE statement to get any result that requires some form of conditional operation.

Updating Data

Let's take a look at the students that passed/failed 'Chemistry' once again.

SELECT student_id, subject, score, 
    CASE 
        WHEN score >= 60 THEN 'Passed'
        ELSE 'Failed'
    END AS status
FROM results 

WHERE subject = 'Chemistry'
ORDER BY score
;

student_id	subject	score	status
1	Chemistry	0	Failed
21	Chemistry	0	Failed
23	Chemistry	36	Failed
12	Chemistry	40	Failed
20	Chemistry	40	Failed
22	Chemistry	41	Failed
15	Chemistry	45	Failed
10	Chemistry	51	Failed
11	Chemistry	56	Failed
17	Chemistry	60	Passed
8	Chemistry	61	Passed
5	Chemistry	61	Passed
13	Chemistry	62	Passed
6	Chemistry	63	Passed
16	Chemistry	67	Passed
14	Chemistry	70	Passed
18	Chemistry	71	Passed
4	Chemistry	71	Passed
2	Chemistry	73	Passed
7	Chemistry	74	Passed
19	Chemistry	75	Passed
9	Chemistry	81	Passed
24	Chemistry	82	Passed

If the students with ids 12, 10, 11 and 15 re-took the course and had the following scores

student_id	score
12	70
10	80
11	85
15	90

Now we have to update the Chemistry table with this new result. One way we can do this is to use multiple UPDATE statements like so:


UPDATE results
    SET score = 70
    WHERE student_id = 12 AND subject = 'Chemistry';

UPDATE results
    SET score = 80
    WHERE student_id = 10 AND subject = 'Chemistry';

         .
         .
         .

But this can be quite inefficient and might be a little difficult to maintain. You can perform multiple updates with different values using the CASE statement to specify a value for each student_id and an IN clause to select all the student_ids you want like so:


UPDATE results
    SET score = 
        CASE 
            WHEN student_id = 12 THEN 70
            WHEN student_id = 10 THEN 80
            WHEN student_id = 11 THEN 85
            WHEN student_id = 15 THEN 90
        END
    WHERE student_id IN (12, 10, 11, 15) AND subject = 'Chemistry';

Now when we retrieve the data for 'Chemistry'

student_id	subject	score	status
1	Chemistry	0	Failed
21	Chemistry	0	Failed
23	Chemistry	36	Failed
20	Chemistry	40	Failed
22	Chemistry	41	Failed
17	Chemistry	60	Passed
8	Chemistry	61	Passed
5	Chemistry	61	Passed
13	Chemistry	62	Passed
6	Chemistry	63	Passed
16	Chemistry	67	Passed
14	Chemistry	70	Passed
12	Chemistry	70	Passed
4	Chemistry	71	Passed
18	Chemistry	71	Passed
2	Chemistry	73	Passed
7	Chemistry	74	Passed
19	Chemistry	75	Passed
10	Chemistry	80	Passed
9	Chemistry	81	Passed
24	Chemistry	82	Passed
11	Chemistry	85	Passed
15	Chemistry	90	Passed

We can see that the students we specified were updated successfully.

Note that while doing an update and the data type returned in the CASE statement does not match the data type of the column, we would need to do an explicit cast. For example, if we had returned strings in our case statement previously

UPDATE results
    SET score = 
        CASE 
            WHEN student_id = 12 THEN '70'
            WHEN student_id = 10 THEN '80'
            WHEN student_id = 11 THEN '85'
            WHEN student_id = 15 THEN '90'
        END
    WHERE student_id IN (12, 10, 11, 15) AND subject = 'Chemistry';

Then Postgresql would have thrown the following error

ERROR:  syntax error at or near "score"
LINE 2: SET SET score =

To solve this we just cast the values in the case to INT like so:

UPDATE results
    SET score = 
        CASE 
            WHEN student_id = 12 THEN '70'
            WHEN student_id = 10 THEN '80'
            WHEN student_id = 11 THEN '85'
            WHEN student_id = 15 THEN '90'
        END::int
    WHERE student_id IN (12, 10, 11, 15) AND subject = 'Chemistry';

Works just like before!

Conclusion

So we have seen that the CASE statement can come in handy for categorizing, aggregating and updating data. So in case you ever want to perform a conditional statement in SQL, always remember to use the CASE statement