Can I use… UNIQUE NULLS NOT DISTINCT (…)


Apache DerbyBigQueryDb2 (LUW)H2MariaDBMySQLOracle DBPostgreSQLSQL ServerSQLite2009201120132015201720192021⊘ 3.5.7 - 3.42.0⊘ 2008R2 - 2022✓ 15+⊘ 8.3 - 14⊘ 11gR1 - 21c⊘ 5.0 - 8.0.33⊘ 5.1 - 10.11⊘ 1.4.191 - 2.1.214⊘ 10.15.1.3 - 10.16.1.1
  1. Doesn’t support null-able columns in unique constraints (T591)

Unique constrains accept an optional nulls not distinct modifier to specify that one null value rules out other null values in the same column of the constraint.

CREATE TABLE … (
   …,
   UNIQUE NULLS NOT DISTINCT (…)
)

Implementation Defined Behavior

The default null treatment of unique constraints is implementation defined. Note that nulls not distinct unique constraints may still treat null values as distinct from each other for rows where all constraint columns are null.0

Apache DerbyBigQueryaaDb2 (LUW)aaH2MariaDBMySQLOracle DBbcPostgreSQLSQL ServerSQLitedefault: nulls distinctdefault: nulls not distinct
  1. Doesn’t support null-able columns in unique constraints (T591)
  2. If all constraint columns are null
  3. If some but not all constraint columns are null

Normative References

The nulls not distinct specification is part of the optional feature F292, “UNIQUE null treatment”.

Note that SQL:2016 specifies the behaviour of nulls distinct as the only way to cope with null values in unique constraints. In the mentioned draft the default behaviour is implementation defined.

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Footnotes

  1. CD 9075-2:202x(E), 4.25.3.2 Unique constraints (in particular NOTE 52).

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