SQL CASE Statement Evaluates Only First TRUE Condition

A small SQL behavior that many people misunderstand CASE does NOT evaluate all conditions. It stops at the first TRUE condition and returns only that result. Example: CASE WHEN a <> b THEN ‘Mismatch A’ WHEN c <> d THEN ‘Mismatch B’ WHEN e <> f THEN ‘Mismatch C’ END If all three conditions are true, output will still be only: Mismatch A Why this matters You might think you’re checking multiple conditions, but SQL is only returning the first match. If you actually need to capture all issues: • Use multiple CASE statements and combine results • Or use UNION ALL to return each condition as a separate row Key point CASE is not like IF…ELSE blocks in programming. It’s a single expression that returns one value. Understanding this saves a lot of confusion while writing logic. #SQL #DataEngineering #SQLServer #ETL #Learning #TechTips

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