DECODE

DECODE compares an expression to one or more search strings one by one.

If expr is equal to search, then DECODE returns the corresponding result. If there is no match, then DECODE returns default. If you omit default, then DECODE returns null.

Return Value

Data type of the first result argument

Syntax

DECODE(expr, search, result
          [, search, result ]...
          [, default ]
      )

Arguments

expr is an expression that will be compared to one or more search strings.

search is a string that will be searched for a match to expr.

result is the return value when expr matches the corresponding search string.

default is the return value when expr does not match any of the search strings. If default is omitted, then DECODE returns null.

The arguments can be any numeric or character type. Two nulls are equivalent. If expr is null, then DECODE returns the result of the first search that is also null.

The maximum number of components, including expr, searches, results, and default, is 255.

Example

DECODE(sysdate, '21-JUN-06', 'Summer Solstice', '21-DEC-06', 'Winter Solstice', 'Have a nice day!')

returns these values:

Summer Solstice on June 21, 2006,
Winter Solstice on December 21, 2006, and
Have a nice day! on all other days.