I need your suggestion to write one tricky SQL query to select only one record from database on the following condition.I explained simple table structure below.I have a table temp with four columns a,b,c,d in it.

I have to select column d from this temp table based on the following four conditions.If it matches any condition, It should skip other conditions, that's the tricky thing.

Conditions order is like shown below.

1) a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='argument3'(If it matches this condition, it should stop selecting below 3 conditions)

2) a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='none'(If it matches this condition, it should stop selecting below 2 conditions)

3) a='argument1' and b='none' and c='argument3'(If it matches this condition, it should stop selecting below condition)

4) a='argument1' and b='none' and c='none'(this is last condition)

If I use OR operator , it matches all of those other conditions too.I never wrote query like this before.

I greatly appreciate if somebody sheds light on me to start writing this query with a simple suggestion.

Thanks,
GD

Select Top 1 * From temp Where
   (a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='argument3') Or
   (a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='none') Or
   (a='argument1' and b='none' and c='argument3') Or
   (a='argument1' and b='none' and c='none')
Order By
   Case
      When a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='argument3' Then 1
      When a='argument1' and b='argument2' and c='none' Then 2
      When a='argument1' and b='none' and c='argument3' Then 3
      When a='argument1' and b='none' and c='none' Then 4
    End

That will work in SQL Server; Oracle would be Where ... And RowNum = 1, probably with slightly different syntax in the case statement, and MySQL is going to be a little different still.

You probably want to put that case block a second time in the select list, and use it to show why a particular row was selected.