SQL NOT Operator

Example Table

We will use the following table named employees for our examples:

    CREATE TABLE employees (
        employee_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
        employee_name VARCHAR(50),
        department VARCHAR(50)
    );

    INSERT INTO employees (employee_id, employee_name, department) VALUES
    (1, 'Alice Johnson', 'HR'),
    (2, 'Bob Smith', 'IT'),
    (3, 'Charlie Brown', 'Finance'),
    (4, 'Diana Prince', 'IT'),
    (5, 'Eve Davis', 'Marketing');
    

Employees Table

Using SQL NOT Operator

SQL NOT is used to negate a condition in a query.

Example: Find Employees Not in IT Department

To find employees who are not in the IT department, use the following query:

    SELECT employee_name, department
    FROM employees
    WHERE department NOT IN ('IT');
    

Result:

Example: Find Employees Not Named 'Bob Smith'

To find employees whose name is not 'Bob Smith', use the following query:

    SELECT employee_name, department
    FROM employees
    WHERE employee_name != 'Bob Smith';
    

Result: