DECODE

Compares an expression to each search value one by one. If the expression is equal to a search, then Oracle Database returns the corresponding result. If no match is found, then Oracle returns the specified default value.

Syntax

See Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Restrictions

The following restrictions apply when you use the DECODE function in the SELECT command:

• The search arguments must be character data.

• A default value must be specified.

Example

This example shows each incident_id and whether or not the incident is flood-controlled. The example uses the DECODE function to display text instead of numbers for the flood_controlled field.

select incident_id, decode(flood_controlled, 0, \
  "Not flood-controlled", "Flood-controlled") from incident;