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5 Things Every Aspiring SQL Wizard Must Know About Case Statements
A Quick Guide To Level Up Your Case Statement Knowledge
Case statements are how conditional logic is handled at the field level in SQL queries. They are one of the most commonly used features in analytics reporting because of their ability to bucket text values into categories and create flags for critical metrics.
Consider these examples of both use cases:
Bucket Categories: You have a table named produce with a column named item_name that lists the names of different fruits and vegetables. You want to add another column called produce_type that categorizes each item as “fruit” or “vegetable.”
Critical Metric Flag: You have a table named inbound_calls with a column named hold_time, and you want to flag any calls that were put on hold for longer than 30 seconds in a new column called answer_time_not_met.
Case statements are exactly how you write this kind of “if-then” logic into your SQL queries. Because of their prevalence in reporting, you will want to master them sooner rather than later.
Here are five essential things you must know to go from case-statement beginner to wizard.
