Sunday, March 11, 2012

choosing a the column that is not null

I have two columns in a table. For every record, one column contains a value and the other one is null. Which one is filled and which one is empty differs per record. In my query I only want to retrieve the column that contains the value, but not the other one. Is it possible to do this with a standard tsql function? Other solutions are also welcome.REfer IS [NOT] NULL from BOL.|||I tried to use "is null", "not null" and stuff like that, but it did not get the desired results. Meanwhile I found the functions "ISNULL()" and "NULLIF()". As I can see it now, these provide the correct results.|||Originally posted by jora
I tried to use "is null", "not null" and stuff like that, but it did not get the desired results. Meanwhile I found the functions "ISNULL()" and "NULLIF()". As I can see it now, these provide the correct results.

You might want to take a look at the function COALESCE() which is designed to solve the problem you have.

The function is also part of the ANSI standard and is supported by many RDBMS.

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