Can I use CASE statement in a JOIN condition?

Question

A CASE expression returns a value from the THEN portion of the clause. You could use it thusly:

SELECT  * 
FROM    sys.indexes i 
    JOIN sys.partitions p 
        ON i.index_id = p.index_id  
    JOIN sys.allocation_units a 
        ON CASE 
           WHEN a.type IN (1, 3) AND a.container_id = p.hobt_id THEN 1
           WHEN a.type IN (2) AND a.container_id = p.partition_id THEN 1
           ELSE 0
           END = 1

Note that you need to do something with the returned value, e.g. compare it to 1. Your statement attempted to return the value of an assignment or test for equality, neither of which make sense in the context of a CASE/THEN clause. (If BOOLEAN was a datatype then the test for equality would make sense.)

Instead, you simply JOIN to both tables, and in your SELECT clause, return data from the one that matches:

I suggest you to go through this link Conditional Joins in SQL Server and T-SQL Case Statement in a JOIN ON Clause

e.g.

    SELECT  *
FROM    sys.indexes i
        JOIN sys.partitions p
            ON i.index_id = p.index_id 
        JOIN sys.allocation_units a
            ON a.container_id =
            CASE
               WHEN a.type IN (1, 3)
                   THEN  p.hobt_id 
               WHEN a.type IN (2)
                   THEN p.partition_id
               END 

Edit: As per comments.

You can not specify the join condition as you are doing.. Check the query above that have no error. I have take out the common column up and the right column value will be evaluated on condition.

Try this:

...JOIN sys.allocation_units a ON 
  (a.type=2 AND a.container_id = p.partition_id)
  OR (a.type IN (1, 3) AND a.container_id = p.hobt_id)

I think you need two case statements:

SELECT  *
FROM    sys.indexes i
    JOIN sys.partitions p
        ON i.index_id = p.index_id 
    JOIN sys.allocation_units a
        ON 
        -- left side of join on statement
            CASE
               WHEN a.type IN (1, 3)
                   THEN a.container_id
               WHEN a.type IN (2)
                   THEN a.container_id
            END 
        = 
        -- right side of join on statement
            CASE
               WHEN a.type IN (1, 3)
                   THEN p.hobt_id
               WHEN a.type IN (2)
                   THEN p.partition_id
            END             

This is because:

• the CASE statement returns a single value at the END
  
• the ON statement compares two values
  
• your CASE statement was doing the comparison inside of the CASE statement. I would guess that if you put your CASE statement in your SELECT you would get a boolean '1' or '0' indicating whether the CASE statement evaluated to True or False
  

I took your example and edited it:

SELECT  *
FROM    sys.indexes i
    JOIN sys.partitions p
        ON i.index_id = p.index_id 
    JOIN sys.allocation_units a
        ON a.container_id = (CASE
           WHEN a.type IN (1, 3)
               THEN p.hobt_id 
           WHEN a.type IN (2)
               THEN p.partition_id
           ELSE NULL
           END)