Data Manipulation in a query

hey, just wondering if anyone can give me a quick answer to this.

Is there a way to change values returned by a query into something else during the query process.. well that wasn't the clearest statement i've ever made so i'll put down an example..

say we are working with something like this

SELECT account_number, account_type
FROM bankaccounts

and account_type is a value between 1 and 3
what i want to do is instead of getting a result set like this

account_number | account_type
0923423234 1
2834203443 1
0230489453 3
...

i want

account_number | account_type
0923423234 savings
2834203443 savings
0230489453 chequeing
...

so what i'm looking for is a way to incoporate something that would be the equivalent of

if account_type.value = 1 set account_type.value = 'savings' .. etc.

but i don't want to modify the database

 

what mysql do you have?

 

you can use "case when" statement.

Simple example:
select case number_field when 1 then 'one' when 2 then 'two' when 3 then 'three' end
from number_table

 

works like a dream, thanks super