SQL: IF clause within WHERE clause

Question

Is it possible to use an IF clause within a WHERE clause in MS SQL?

Example:

WHERE
 IF IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) = 1
  OrderNumber = @OrderNumber
 ELSE
  OrderNumber LIKE '%' + @OrderNumber + '%'

Answer 1

Use a CASE statement instead of IF.

Answer 2

Use a CASE statement
UPDATE: The previous syntax (as pointed out by a few people) doesn't work. You can use CASE as follows:

WHERE OrderNumber LIKE
  CASE WHEN IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) = 1 THEN 
    @OrderNumber 
  ELSE
    '%' + @OrderNumber
  END

Or you can use an IF statement like @N. J. Reed points out.

Answer 3

You want the CASE statement

WHERE OrderNumber LIKE
CASE WHEN IsNumeric(@OrderNumber)=1 THEN @OrderNumber ELSE '%' + @OrderNumber END

Answer 4

You should be able to do this without any IF or CASE

 WHERE 
   (IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) AND
      (CAST OrderNumber AS VARCHAR) = (CAST @OrderNumber AS VARCHAR)
 OR
   (NOT IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) AND
       OrderNumber LIKE ('%' + @OrderNumber))

Depending on the flavour of SQL you may need to tweak the casts on the order number to an INT or VARCHAR depending on whether implicit casts are supported.

This is a very common technique in a WHERE clause. If you want to apply some "IF" logic in the WHERE clause all you need to do is add the extra condition with an boolean AND to the section where it needs to be applied.

Answer 5

There isn't a good way to do this in SQL. Some approaches I have seen:

1) Use CASE combined with boolean operators:

WHERE
    OrderNumber = CASE 
        WHEN (IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) = 1)
        THEN CONVERT(INT, @OrderNumber)
        ELSE -9999 -- Some numeric value that just cannot exist in the column
    END
    OR 
    FirstName LIKE CASE
        WHEN (IsNumeric(@OrderNumber) = 0)
        THEN '%' + @OrderNumber
        ELSE ''
    END

2) Use IF's outside the SELECT

IF (IsNumeric(@OrderNumber)) = 1
BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM Table
    WHERE @OrderNumber = OrderNumber
END ELSE BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM Table
    WHERE OrderNumber LIKE '%' + @OrderNumber
END

3) Using a long string, compose your SQL statement conditionally, and then use EXEC

The 3rd approach is hideous, but it's almost the only think that works if you have a number of variable conditions like that.