Not Equal does not work in SQL Query

Question

I am trying to use the "Not Equal" command in Sql but it does not seem to be working. I want to get the total count when all the 3 fields (status1, status2 and status3) are not equal to Yes. For some reason I am getting 0 records.

SELECT
    COUNT(ID) from [maintable]
WHERE 
    status1 <> 'YES'
    and status2 <> 'YES'
    and status3 <> 'YES'

The above query does not generate any results. What am i doing wrong here? Thanks

Answer 1

Try this:

SELECT
    COUNT(ID) from [maintable]
WHERE
    COALESCE(status1, '') <> 'YES'
    AND COALESCE(status2, '') <> 'YES'
    AND COALESCE(status3, '') <> 'YES'

null values are not <> 'YES', they are undefined.

COALESCE