<> (Not Equal To) (Transact-SQL)

Compares two expressions (a comparison operator). When you compare nonnull expressions, the result is TRUE if the left operand is not equal to the right operand; otherwise, the result is FALSE. If either or both operands are NULL, see the topic SET ANSI_NULLS (Transact-SQL).

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

expression < > expression

Arguments

• expression
  Is any valid expression. Both expressions must have implicitly convertible data types. The conversion depends on the rules of data type precedence.

Result Types

Boolean

Examples

A. Using <> in a simple query

The following example returns all rows in the Production.ProductCategory table that do not have value in ProductCategoryID that is equal to the value 3 or the value 2.

USE AdventureWorks2012; 
GO
SELECT ProductCategoryID, Name
FROM Production.ProductCategory
WHERE ProductCategoryID <> 3 AND ProductCategoryID <> 2; 

Here is the result set.

ProductCategoryID Name
----------------- --------------------------------------------------
1                 Bikes
4                 Accessories

(2 row(s) affected)

See Also

Reference

Data Types (Transact-SQL)

Operators (Transact-SQL)

Comparison Operators (Transact-SQL)