"DHatheway" <dlhatheway@mmm.com.nospam> wrote in message news:ck18oi$m31$1@tuvok3.mmm.com...
> "Daniel Morgan" <damorgan@x.washington.edu> wrote in message
> news:1096932539.547042@yasure...
> > N wrote:
> > > What is the function in SQL that works like DECODE in Oracle?"
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > N
> >
> > As you know CASE is not the same as DECODE ... but SQL Server hsa no
> > functionality equivalent to DECODE so you will have to adapt CASE to
> > do the job.
> > --
> > Daniel A. Morgan
> > University of Washington
> > damorgan@x.washington.edu
> > (replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)
> >
>
> OK, then, what does DECODE do?
>


DECODE( exp, search1, result1 [,search2, result2]... ) is semantically equivalent to:

CASE exp
when search1 then result1
when search2 then result2
... END

The difference between CASE and DECODE is that CASE also allows the form:
CASE
WHEN exp1 = search1 then result1
WHEN exp2 = search2 then result2
... END

DECODE can't do that.

--
Paul Horan[TeamSybase]

VCI Springfield, Mass
www.vcisolutions.com