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Asked: 2026-05-11T10:08:56+00:00

We’d like to write this query: select * from table where col1 != ‘blah’

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We’d like to write this query:

select * from table  where col1 != 'blah' and col2 = 'something'

We want the query to include rows where col1 is null (and col2 = ‘something’). Currently the query won’t do this for the rows where col1 is null. Is the below query the best and fastest way?

select * from table  where (col1 != 'blah' or col1 is null) and col2 = 'something'

Alternatively, we could if needed update all the col1 null values to empty strings. Would this be a better approach? Then our first query would work.

Update: Re: using NVL: I’ve read on another post that this is not considered a great option from a performance perspective.

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1 Answer

  1. In Oracle, there is no difference between an empty string and NULL.

    That is blatant disregard for the SQL standard, but there you go …

    In addition to that, you cannot compare against NULL (or not NULL) with the ‘normal’ operators: ‘col1 = null’ will not work, ‘col1 = ” ‘ will not work, ‘col1 != null’ will not work, you have to use ‘is null’.

    So, no, you cannot make this work any other way then ‘col 1 is null’ or some variation on that (such as using nvl).

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