MySQL returning an empty field: CONCAT(nonEmpty1,empty2,nonEmpty3) = NULL

Question

I have PHP 5 code accessing a MyISAM table on MySQL 5 server. The query looks like this:

SELECT CONCAT(fName1,\' \',mName2,\' \',lName3) AS userName 
    FROM us         


        

Answer 1

you could also the COALESCE() function to return the first non-null value. Like so:

SELECT CONCAT(fName1,COALESCE(CONCAT(' ',mName2,' '),' '),lName3) AS userName 
  FROM users 
  WHERE level > 10

This would also only put one space if there was no middle name and a space before and after if there was a middle name.

Reference for this function can be found at: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/comparison-operators.html#function_coalesce