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SQL Sip

<> means 'is not this'

Sometimes it's easier to say what you don't want. The symbol <> means 'is not equal to', so rows holding that value are left out and everything else comes back. Many databases also accept != for the same thing, but <> works everywhere.

A tiny example

In plain English: Show me the titles of the books that are not borrowed.

SELECT title
FROM books
WHERE status <> 'borrowed';

What comes back

title
Dune
Wool

Dune and Wool are the only books whose status is something other than 'borrowed'.

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