from:
http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/sql/decode.html
decode [Oracle SQL]
<script type="text/javascript"> <!-- google_ad_client = "pub-8899454244071340"; google_ad_width = 160; google_ad_height = 600; google_ad_format = "160x600_as"; google_ad_channel =""; google_color_border = "EEEECC"; google_color_bg = "EEEECC"; google_color_link = "0000FF"; google_color_url = "008000"; google_color_text = "0000CC"; //--> </script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>decode (expression, search_1, result_1) decode (expression, search_1, result_1, search_2, result_2) decode (expression, search_1, result_1, search_2, result_2, ...., search_n, result_n) decode (expression, search_1, result_1, default) decode (expression, search_1, result_1, search_2, result_2, default) decode (expression, search_1, result_1, search_2, result_2, ...., search_n, result_n, default)
decode compares expression to the search_x expressions and, if matches, returns result_x. If not, returns default, or, if default is left out,
null.
This is demonstrated with the following example:
create table a (x int, b int); insert into a values (1,2); insert into a values (1,3); insert into a values (2,4); insert into a values (2,5); insert into a values (3,6); select * from a where b = decode (x,1,2,2,4);
X B ---------- ---------- 1 2 2 4
See also
case when which allows to do similar things, but is more powerful.