[DERBY-6560] Reference manual says ELSE clause is required in CASE expressions

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 10.10.2.0
• Fix Version/s: 10.11.1.1
• Component/s: Documentation
• Assignee: Camilla Haase
• Reporter: Knut Anders Hatlen
• Created: 30/Apr/14 10:52
• Updated: 03/Sep/14 08:37
• Resolved: 02/May/14 14:47

Description

The reference manual topic on the CASE expression says the syntax is

CASE 
  WHEN booleanExpression THEN thenExpression 
  [ WHEN booleanExpression THEN thenExpression ]*
  ELSE elseExpression 
END

The ELSE clause is optional and should be in square brackets, as seen by this example:

ij> values case when (1<>1) then 'yes' end;
1   
----
NULL

1 row selected

This seems to comply with the SQL standard, as the syntax rules for <case expression> say that "[if] an <else clause> is not specified, then ELSE NULL is implicit."