How Do I Use Properly Case. .When in Mysql

Here is a demo query, notice it is very simple, Fetches only where base_price is 0, And still, it chooses the condition 3:

SELECT
   CASE course_enrollment_settings.base_price
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price<101      THEN 2
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price>100 AND   
                      course_enrollment_settings.base_price<201 THEN 3
        ELSE 6
   END AS 'calc_base_price',
   course_enrollment_settings.base_price
FROM
    course_enrollment_settings
WHERE course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0

base_price is decimal(8,0)

When run this on my DB, I get:

3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0

0

6 Answers

Remove the course_enrollment_settings.base_price immediately after CASE:

SELECT
   CASE
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1
    ...
    END

CASE has two different forms, as detailed in the manual. Here, you want the second form since you're using search conditions.

1
CASE case_value
    WHEN when_value THEN statements
    [WHEN when_value THEN statements]
    ELSE statements
END 

Or:

CASE
WHEN <search_condition> THEN statements
[WHEN <search_condition> THEN statements] 
ELSE statements
END 

here CASE is an expression in 2nd scenario search_condition will evaluate and if no search_condition is equal then execute else

SELECT
   CASE course_enrollment_settings.base_price
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1

should be

SELECT
   CASE 
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1
2

CASE course_enrollment_settings.base_price is wrong here, it should be just CASE

SELECT 
CASE 
WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1 
WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price<101      THEN 2 
WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price>100 AND    
                  course_enrollment_settings.base_price<201 THEN 3 
    ELSE 6 
END AS 'calc_base_price', 
course_enrollment_settings.base_price 
FROM 
  course_enrollment_settings 
WHERE course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0 

Some explanations. Your original query will be executed as :

SELECT 
CASE 0
WHEN 0=0 THEN 1 -- condition evaluates to 1, then 0 (from CASE 0)compares to 1 - false
WHEN 0<1 THEN 2 -- condition evaluates to 1,then 0 (from CASE 0)compares to 1 - false
WHEN 0>100 and 0<201 THEN 3 -- evaluates to 0 ,then 0 (from CASE 0)compares to 0 - true
ELSE 6, ...

it's why you always get 3

3
SELECT
   CASE 
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0      THEN 1
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price>0 AND  
         course_enrollment_settings.base_price<=100     THEN 2
    WHEN course_enrollment_settings.base_price>100 AND   
         course_enrollment_settings.base_price<201      THEN 3
        ELSE 6
   END AS 'calc_base_price',
   course_enrollment_settings.base_price
FROM
    course_enrollment_settings
WHERE course_enrollment_settings.base_price = 0
1

There are two variants of CASE, and you're not using the one that you think you are.

What you're doing

CASE case_value
    WHEN when_value THEN statement_list
    [WHEN when_value THEN statement_list] ...
    [ELSE statement_list]
END CASE

Each condition is loosely equivalent to a if (case_value == when_value) (pseudo-code).

However, you've put an entire condition as when_value, leading to something like:

if (case_value == (case_value > 100))

Now, (case_value > 100) evaluates to FALSE, and is the only one of your conditions to do so. So, now you have:

if (case_value == FALSE)

FALSE converts to 0 and, through the resulting full expression if (case_value == 0) you can now see why the third condition fires.

What you're supposed to do

Drop the first course_enrollment_settings so that there's no case_value, causing MySQL to know that you intend to use the second variant of CASE:

CASE
    WHEN search_condition THEN statement_list
    [WHEN search_condition THEN statement_list] ...
    [ELSE statement_list]
END CASE

Now you can provide your full conditionals as search_condition.

Also, please read the documentation for features that you use.

1

I think part of it is that you're stating the value you're selecting after CASE, and then using WHEN x = y syntax afterward, which is a combination of two different methods of using CASE. It should either be

CASE X
  WHEN a THEN ...
  WHEN b THEN ...

or

CASE
  WHEN x = a THEN ...
  WHEN x = b THEN ...

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David Miller

David Miller

Executive Financial & Market Analyst

David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.

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