NOT operator

NOT reverses a condition, so instead of spelling out everything you want, you just name what you don't want and everything else comes back. Like telling a waiter "anything but fish" rather than listing every other item on the menu.

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Example

Excluding Retail Orders with NOT

SELECT * FROM orders
WHERE NOT status = 'cancelled'

Result:

order_id	category	status	revenue
O2001	Electronics	shipped	129.99
O2003	Home	shipped	89.0
O2005	Grocery	delivered	34.2
O2006	Clothing	delivered	58.0

Step by step

The asterisk symbol means all columns.
```
SELECT *
```
FROM tells SQL which table to pull the data from.
```
SELECT *
FROM orders
```

WHERE keeps only the rows that match your condition.

SELECT *
FROM orders
WHERE NOT status = 'cancelled';

Practice

Try each one in your head first, then open the answer.

1. Using orders, write a query to find rows where category is NOT equal to 'Electronics'.

SELECT * FROM orders WHERE NOT category = 'Electronics'

2. Using products, write a query to find rows where brand is NOT equal to 'NovaTech'.

SELECT * FROM products WHERE NOT brand = 'NovaTech'

3. Using customers, write a query to find rows where customer_id is NOT equal to 'C101'.

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE NOT customer_id = 'C101'

4. Using store_sales, write a query to find rows where store_id is NOT equal to 'ST01'.

SELECT * FROM store_sales WHERE NOT store_id = 'ST01'

5. Using returns, write a query to find rows where order_id is NOT equal to 'O2001'.

SELECT * FROM returns WHERE NOT order_id = 'O2001'

Learn it by doing. This lesson is a short hands-on level on Bampaa: see it work, then build and write it yourself, with instant feedback.

Try this lesson free →

About 5–10 minutes · no sign-up needed