not-equal-to-transact-sql-traditional.md

title	<> (Not Equal To) (Transact-SQL)
description	Not Equal To (Transact SQL) - traditional
author	rwestMSFT
ms.author	randolphwest
ms.date	03/13/2017
ms.service	sql
ms.subservice	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom	ignite-2025
f1_keywords	<> <>_TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	not equal to operator (<>) <> (not equal to operator)
dev_langs	TSQL
monikerRange	>=aps-pdw-2016 || =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric || =fabric-sqldb

Not Equal To (Transact SQL) - traditional

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw-fabricse-fabricdw-fabricsqldb]

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).

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: 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.

-- Uses AdventureWorks  
  
SELECT ProductCategoryID, Name  
FROM Production.ProductCategory  
WHERE ProductCategoryID <> 3 AND ProductCategoryID <> 2;  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

ProductCategoryID Name  
----------------- --------------------------------------------------  
1                 Bikes  
4                 Accessories  
  
(2 row(s) affected)  
  

See Also

Data Types (Transact-SQL)
Operators (Transact-SQL)
Comparison Operators (Transact-SQL)