Editing Ternary conditional operator (section)

===SQL===
The SQL {{code|CASE}} expression is a generalization of the ternary operator. Instead of one conditional and two results, ''n'' conditionals and ''n+1'' results can be specified.

With one conditional it is equivalent (although more verbose) to the ternary operator:

<syntaxhighlight lang="sql">
SELECT (CASE WHEN a > b THEN x ELSE y END) AS CONDITIONAL_EXAMPLE
  FROM tab;
</syntaxhighlight>

This can be expanded to several conditionals:

<syntaxhighlight lang="sql">
SELECT (CASE WHEN a > b THEN x WHEN a < b THEN y ELSE z END) AS CONDITIONAL_EXAMPLE
  FROM tab;
</syntaxhighlight>

====MySQL====
In addition to the standard {{code|CASE}} expression, MySQL provides an {{code|IF}} function as an extension:

<syntaxhighlight lang="MySQL">
IF(cond, a, b);
</syntaxhighlight>

====SQL Server====
In addition to the standard {{code|CASE}} expression, SQL Server (from 2012) provides an {{code|IIF}} function:

<syntaxhighlight lang="T-SQL">
IIF(condition, true_value, false_value)
</syntaxhighlight>

====Oracle SQL====
In addition to the standard {{code|CASE}} expression, Oracle has a [[variadic function]]al counterpart which operates similarly to a [[switch statement]] and can be used to emulate the conditional operator when testing for equality.

<syntaxhighlight lang="sql">
-- General syntax takes case-result pairs, comparing against an expression, followed by a fall-back result:
DECODE(expression, case1, result1,
                   ...
                   caseN, resultN,
                          resultElse)

-- We can emulate the conditional operator by just selecting one case:
DECODE(expression, condition, true, false)
</syntaxhighlight>

The {{code|DECODE}} function is, today, deprecated in favour of the standard {{code|CASE}} expression. This can be used in both Oracle SQL queries as well as [[PL/SQL]] blocks, whereas {{code|decode}} can only be used in the former.