How do I create a stored procedure that will optionally search columns?

Question

I\'m working on an application for work that is going to query our employee database. The end users want the ability to search based on the standard name/department criteria

Answer 1

Using the COALESCE method has a problem in that if your column has a NULL value, passing in a NULL search condition (meaning ignore the search condition) will not return the row in many databases.

For example, try the following code on SQL Server 2000:

CREATE TABLE dbo.Test_Coalesce (
    my_id   INT NOT NULL IDENTITY,
    my_string   VARCHAR(20) NULL )
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.Test_Coalesce (my_string) VALUES (NULL)
INSERT INTO dbo.Test_Coalesce (my_string) VALUES ('t')
INSERT INTO dbo.Test_Coalesce (my_string) VALUES ('x')
INSERT INTO dbo.Test_Coalesce (my_string) VALUES (NULL)
GO
DECLARE @my_string  VARCHAR(20)
SET @my_string = NULL
SELECT * FROM dbo.Test_Coalesce WHERE my_string = COALESCE(@my_string, my_string)
GO

You will only get back two rows because in the rows where the column my_string is NULL you are effective getting:

my_string = COALESCE(@my_string, my_string) =>
my_string = COALESCE(NULL, my_string) =>
my_string = my_string =>
NULL = NULL

But of course, NULL does not equal NULL.

I try to stick with:

SELECT
     my_id,
     my_string
FROM
     dbo.Test_Coalesce
WHERE
     (@my_string IS NULL OR my_string = @my_string)

Of course, you can adjust that to use wild cards or whatever else you want to do.