Count the Null columns in a row in SQL

Question

I was wondering about the possibility to count the null columns of row in SQL, I have a table Customer that has nullable values, simply I want a query that return an int of

Answer 1

I haven't tested it yet, but I'd try to do it using a PL\SQL function

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE ANYARRAY AS TABLE OF ANYDATA
;

CREATE OR REPLACE Function COUNT_NULL
( ARR IN ANYARRAY )
RETURN number
IS
   cnumber number ;
BEGIN

   for i in 1 .. ARR.count loop
     if ARR(i).column_value is null then
       cnumber := cnumber + 1;
     end if;
   end loop;

RETURN cnumber;

EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
   raise_application_error
   (-20001,'An error was encountered - '
   ||SQLCODE||' -ERROR- '||SQLERRM);
END
;

Then use it in a select query like this

CREATE TABLE TEST (A NUMBER, B NUMBER, C NUMBER);

INSERT INTO TEST (NULL,NULL,NULL);
INSERT INTO TEST (1   ,NULL,NULL);
INSERT INTO TEST (1   ,2   ,NULL);
INSERT INTO TEST (1   ,2   ,3   );

SELECT ROWNUM,COUNT_NULL(A,B,C) AS NULL_COUNT FROM TEST;

Expected output

ROWNUM | NULL_COUNT
-------+-----------
     1 | 3
     2 | 2
     3 | 1
     4 | 0