How to skip blank and null values in MySQL?

To skip blank and null in MySQL, use the following syntax:

select *from yourTableName where yourColumnName IS NOT NULL AND yourColumnName <> '';

Let us first create a table:

mysql> create table DemoTable (Id int, FirstName varchar(20));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.66 sec)

Following is the query to insert records in the table using insert command:

mysql> insert into DemoTable values(100,'Larry');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(101,'');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(102,'Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(103,null);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(104,' ');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(105,'Robert');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(106,null);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

Following is the query to display records from the table using select command:

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output with blank values and NULL:

+------+-----------+
| Id   | FirstName |
+------+-----------+
| 100  | Larry     |
| 101  |           |
| 102  | Chris     |
| 103  | NULL      |
| 104  |           |
| 105  | Robert    |
| 106  | NULL      |
+------+-----------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to skip blank values as well as null in MySQL:

mysql> select *from DemoTable where FirstName IS NOT NULL AND FirstName <> '';

This will produce the following output

+------+-----------+
| Id   | FirstName |
+------+-----------+
| 100  | Larry     |
| 102  | Chris     |
| 105  | Robert    |
+------+-----------+
3 rows in set (0.03 sec)