Question

Here’s the query as it stands so far:

select `formeid`, `name`, 'm' as `gender` from `data_pokemon`
    where `genders` not like '0|_' and `formeid` not in
        (select `formeid` from `dex` where `userid`=@userid and `gender`='m')
union
select `formeid`, `name`, 'f' as `gender` from `data_pokemon`
    where `genders` not like '_|0' and `formeid` not in
        (select `formeid` from `dex` where `userid`=@userid and `gender`='f')
union
select `formeid`, `name`, 'n' as `gender` from `data_pokemon`
    where `genders`='0|0' and `formeid` not in
        (select `formeid` from `dex` where `userid`=@userid and `gender`='n')
order by `formeid`

As you can see, there’s a lot of repetition. Is there any way to simplify this query so there isn’t so much going on?

Answer 1

SELECT   p.formeid, p.name,
         CASE
           WHEN p.genders NOT LIKE '0|_' THEN 'm'
           WHEN p.genders NOT LIKE '_|0' THEN 'f'
           WHEN p.genders =        '0|0' THEN 'n'
         END AS gender
FROM     data_pokemon p LEFT JOIN dex d
      ON p.formeid = d.formeid
     AND d.userid  = @userid
     AND d.gender  = CASE
           WHEN p.genders NOT LIKE '0|_' THEN 'm'
           WHEN p.genders NOT LIKE '_|0' THEN 'f'
           WHEN p.genders =        '0|0' THEN 'n'
         END
WHERE    d.formeid IS NULL
ORDER BY p.formeid