On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 14:36 -0700, Neil Harkins wrote: > inventory=> SELECT cabinets_name, cabinets_description > FROM cabinets WHERE cabinets_datacenters = 2; > cabinets_name | cabinets_description > ---------------+---------------------- > 548-4th-Cab2 | > 548-4th-RR1 | > 548-4th-RR2 | > 548-4th-Cab1 | > (4 rows) > > inventory=> SELECT cabinets_name || ' - ' || cabinets_description AS concat > FROM cabinets WHERE cabinets_datacenters = 2; > concat > ----------------- > > > > 548-4th-Cab1 - > (4 rows) > > Note: The cabinets_description for the "548-4th-Cab1" row is " ", > not NULL, hence it being displayed. Is this standard SQL behavior? >
I don't know if this is the "correct SQL" answer, however, in the past, I've used the COALESCE() function to handle this situation. <quote> COALESCE(value [, ...]) The COALESCE function returns the first of its arguments that is not null. Null is returned only if all arguments are null. This is often useful to substitute a default value for null values when data is retrieved for display, for example: SELECT COALESCE(description, short_description, '(none)') ... Like a CASE expression, COALESCE will not evaluate arguments that are not needed to determine the result; that is, arguments to the right of the first non-null argument are not evaluated. </quote> Regards. > Client is from rpm: postgresql-8.0.7-1.FC4.1 > Server is from rpm: postgresql-server-8.0.7-1.FC4.1 > > -neil > > > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? > > http://archives.postgresql.org > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
