CASEcase_valueWHENwhen_valueTHENstatement_list[WHENwhen_valueTHENstatement_list] ... [ELSEstatement_list] END CASE
Or:
CASE
WHEN search_condition THEN statement_list
[WHEN search_condition THEN statement_list] ...
[ELSE statement_list]
END CASE
The
CASE
statement for stored programs implements a complex conditional
construct. If a search_condition
evaluates to true, the corresponding SQL statement list is
executed. If no search condition matches, the statement list in
the ELSE clause is executed. Each
statement_list consists of one or
more statements.
If no when_value or
search_condition matches the value
tested and the
CASE
statement contains no ELSE clause, a
Case not found for CASE statement error
results.
Each statement_list consists of one
or more statements; an empty
statement_list is not allowed. To
handle situations where no value is matched by any
WHEN clause, use an ELSE
containing an empty
BEGIN ...
END block, as shown in this example:
DELIMITER |
CREATE PROCEDURE p()
BEGIN
DECLARE v INT DEFAULT 1;
CASE v
WHEN 2 THEN SELECT v;
WHEN 3 THEN SELECT 0;
ELSE
BEGIN
END;
END CASE;
END;
|
(The indentation used here in the ELSE clause
is for purposes of clarity only, and is not otherwise
significant.)
The syntax of the
CASE
statement used inside stored programs
differs slightly from that of the SQL
CASE
expression described in
Section 11.3, “Control Flow Functions”. The
CASE
statement cannot have an ELSE NULL clause,
and it is terminated with END CASE instead
of END.

User Comments
Note the handling of NULL values:
CASE
WHEN var IS NULL THEN SELECT 'Hello';
ELSE SELECT 'world.';
END CASE;
CASE var
WHEN NULL THEN SELECT 'Hello';
ELSE SELECT 'world.';
END CASE;
This will not output "Hello Hello" as might be expected, but will instead output "Hello world." because, in the second CASE statement, "var = NULL" is not true (see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/working-with-null.html for explanation of that).
Remember that the control-flow-functions behave differently.. For example, you have to use "END" instead of "END CASE" (this is noted above in the documentation, but I figured point out again, as I missed it!)
SELECT (CASE field1 WHEN 'Yes' THEN 1 WHEN 'No' THEN 0 ELSE 0 END CASE) FROM mytable; /* FAILS */
SELECT (CASE field1 WHEN 'Yes' THEN 1 WHEN 'No' THEN 0 ELSE 0 END) FROM mytable; /* WORKS */
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