<=>

Syntax

<=>

Description

NULL-safe equal operator. It performs an equality comparison like the = operator, but returns 1 rather than NULL if both operands are NULL, and 0 rather than NULL if one operand is NULL.

a <=> b is equivalent to a = b OR (a IS NULL AND b IS NULL).

When used in row comparisons these two queries return the same results:

SELECT (t1.a, t1.b) <=> (t2.x, t2.y) 
FROM t1 INNER JOIN t2;

SELECT (t1.a <=> t2.x) AND (t1.b <=> t2.y)
FROM t1 INNER JOIN t2;

See also NULL Values in MariaDB.

Examples

SELECT 1 <=> 1, NULL <=> NULL, 1 <=> NULL;
+---------+---------------+------------+
| 1 <=> 1 | NULL <=> NULL | 1 <=> NULL |
+---------+---------------+------------+
|       1 |             1 |          0 |
+---------+---------------+------------+

SELECT 1 = 1, NULL = NULL, 1 = NULL;
+-------+-------------+----------+
| 1 = 1 | NULL = NULL | 1 = NULL |
+-------+-------------+----------+
|     1 |        NULL |     NULL |
+-------+-------------+----------+