Question

I’m writing a query to retrieve translated content. I want it so that if there isn’t a translation for the given language id, it automatically returns the translation for the default language, with Id 1.

select Translation.Title
      ,Translation.Summary
from Translation
where Translation.FkLanguageId = 3

-- If there is no LanguageId of 3, select the record with LanguageId of 1.

I’m working in MS SQL but I think the theory is not DBMS-specific.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This assumes one row per Translation only, based on how you phrased the question. If you have multiple rows per FkLanguageId and I’ve misunderstood, please let us know and the query becomes more complex of course

select TOP 1
   Translation.Title
   ,Translation.Summary
from
    Translation
where
    Translation.FkLanguageId IN (1, 3)
ORDER BY
    FkLanguageId DESC

You’d use LIMIT in another RDBMS