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Not equal to (Transact-SQL) - traditional
Applies to: 👁 Image
SQL Server 👁 Image
Azure SQL Database 👁 Image
Azure SQL Managed Instance 👁 Image
Azure Synapse Analytics 👁 Image
Analytics Platform System (PDW) 👁 Image
SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric 👁 Image
Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric 👁 Image
SQL database in Microsoft Fabric
Compares two expressions (a comparison operator). When you compare non-null expressions, the result is TRUE if the left operand isn't equal to the right operand. Otherwise, the result is FALSE. If either or both operands are NULL, see SET ANSI_NULLS.
👁 Image
Transact-SQL syntax conventions
Syntax
expression <> expression
Arguments
expression
Any valid expression. Both expressions must have implicitly convertible data types. The conversion depends on the rules of data type precedence.
Return types
Boolean
Examples
The code samples in this article use the AdventureWorks2025 or AdventureWorksDW2025 sample database, which you can download from the Microsoft SQL Server Samples and Community Projects home page.
A. Use <> in a simple query
The following example returns all rows in the Production.ProductCategory table that don't have a value in ProductCategoryID that equals 3 or 2.
SELECT ProductCategoryID,
Name
FROM Production.ProductCategory
WHERE ProductCategoryID <> 3
AND ProductCategoryID <> 2;
Here's the result set.
ProductCategoryID Name
------------------ ----------------------
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