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sqloracleoracle10g

How not to exclude null from where not like condition?

In where clause for my query if I include condition in where clause such as 

where 
      T2.Comments not like '%ABC%' 
  and T2.Comments not like '%xyz%'

it also filters out blanks/null comments. I do not want it to filter out null or blanks.

What is another way to filter out eg. ABC and xyz and also not exclude nulls/blanks?

rest of where caluse.. (after adding bottom two condition I do not get any nulls.

Where
    T1.OUT_NO = T2.OUT_NO 
AND T3.OUT_NO = T1.OUT_NO 
AND CAUSE_CAP.CAUSE_NO NOT IN (1,3,5,7,9) 
AND ("T1"."TIME_STAMP">=TO_DATE ('01-04-2013 00:00:00', 'DD-MM-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') AND "T1"."TIME_STAMP"<TO_DATE ('06-04-2013 23:59:59', 'DD-MM-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) 
AND NOT (CAUSE_CAP.CAUSE_NO = 13 AND START_TABLE.TABLE_NO = 83)
AND T2.Comments not like '%ABC%'
AND T2.Comments not like '%XYZ%'
Solution

  • just add NULL as a specific case. [edited to show how to generalise this approach to OPs more complex query]

    Where
    T1.OUT_NO = T2.OUT_NO 
AND T3.OUT_NO = T1.OUT_NO 
AND CAUSE_CAP.CAUSE_NO NOT IN (1,3,5,7,9) 
AND ("T1"."TIME_STAMP">=TO_DATE ('01-04-2013 00:00:00', 'DD-MM-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') AND "T1"."TIME_STAMP"<TO_DATE ('06-04-2013 23:59:59', 'DD-MM-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) 
AND NOT (CAUSE_CAP.CAUSE_NO = 13 AND START_TABLE.TABLE_NO = 83)
AND (T2.Comments IS NULL OR 
        (T2.Comments not like '%ABC%'
         AND T2.Comments not like '%XYZ%')
    )