Returns the first non-NULL value from a list of expressions.

Syntax

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COALESCE(<Expression>, [<Expression>])

<Expression> =

Type of:

CHARACTER|CHAR
CHARACTER VARYING|VARCHAR
GUID
BYTE
BYTE VARYING|VARBYTE
BINARY LARGE OBJECT|BLOB
CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT|CLOB
BOOLEAN|BOOL
SMALLINT
INTEGER|INT
BIGINT
FLOAT
DECIMAL|NUMERIC
DATE
TIME
TIMESTAMP
INTERVAL YEAR
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH
INTERVAL MONTH
INTERVAL DAY
INTERVAL DAY TO HOUR
INTERVAL DAY TO MINUTE
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND
INTERVAL DAY TO MSECOND
INTERVAL HOUR
INTERVAL HOUR TO MINUTE
INTERVAL HOUR TO SECOND
INTERVAL HOUR TO MSECOND
INTERVAL MINUTE
INTERVAL MINUTE TO SECOND
INTERVAL MINUTE TO MSECOND
INTERVAL SECOND
INTERVAL SECOND TO MSECOND
INTERVAL MSECOND

Returns

---

Same as input

Usage

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The COALESCE function returns the first non-NULL value from a list of expressions. There is no limit to the number of expressions that can be passed as parameters, and the expressions can be of any type.

This function is useful for converting NULL numeric column values into zeros for display purposes.

Examples

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SELECT TransDateTime,
COALESCE(Amount, 0.00) AS Amount
FROM Transactions

SQL 2003 Standard Deviations

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This function deviates from the SQL 2003 standard in the following ways: