What is an Operator in SQL?
An operator is a reserved word or a character used primarily in an SQL
statement's WHERE clause to perform operation(s), such as comparisons
and arithmetic operations.
Operators are used to specify conditions in an SQL statement and to
serve as conjunctions for multiple conditions in a statement.
Arithmetic operators
Comparison operators
Logical operators
Operators used to negate conditions
SQL Arithmetic Operators:
Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then:
Show Examples
Operator Description Example
+ Addition - Adds values on either side of the operator a + b will
give 30
- Subtraction - Subtracts right hand operand from left a - b will
hand operand give -10
* Multiplication - Multiplies values on either side of the a * b will
operator give 200
/ Division - Divides left hand operand by right hand b / a will
operand give 2
% Modulus - Divides left hand operand by right hand b%a
operand and returns remainder will give
0
SQL Comparison Operators:
Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then:
Show Examples
Operator Description Example
= Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if (a = b)
yes then condition becomes true. is not
true.
!= Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if (a != b)
values are not equal then condition becomes true. is true.
<> Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if (a <> b)
values are not equal then condition becomes true. is true.
> Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the (a > b)
value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes is not
true. true.
< Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value (a < b)
of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. is true.
>= Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or (a >= b)
equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition is not
becomes true. true.
<= Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal (a <= b)
to the value of right operand, if yes then condition is true.
becomes true.
!< Checks if the value of left operand is not less than the (a !< b)
value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes is false.
true.
!> Checks if the value of left operand is not greater than (a !> b)
the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes is true.
true.
SQL Logical Operators:
Here is a list of all the logical operators available in SQL.
Show Examples
Operator Description
ALL The ALL operator is used to compare a value to all values in another
value set.
AND The AND operator allows the existence of multiple conditions in an
SQL statement's WHERE clause.
ANY The ANY operator is used to compare a value to any applicable value
in the list according to the condition.
BETWEEN The BETWEEN operator is used to search for values that are within a
set of values, given the minimum value and the maximum value.
EXISTS The EXISTS operator is used to search for the presence of a row in a
specified table that meets certain criteria.
IN The IN operator is used to compare a value to a list of literal values
that have been specified.
LIKE The LIKE operator is used to compare a value to similar values using
wildcard operators.
NOT The NOT operator reverses the meaning of the logical operator with
which it is used. Eg: NOT EXISTS, NOT BETWEEN, NOT IN, etc. This
is a negate operator.
OR The OR operator is used to combine multiple conditions in an SQL
statement's WHERE clause.
IS NULL The NULL operator is used to compare a value with a NULL value.
UNIQUE The UNIQUE operator searches every row of a specified table for
uniqueness (no duplicates).
