Replace Default Null Values Returned From Left Outer Join

Question

I have a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 query that returns data from three tables using a left outer join. Many times, there is no data in the second and third tables and so I g

Answer 1

MySQL

COALESCE(field, 'default')

For example:

  SELECT
    t.id,
    COALESCE(d.field, 'default')
  FROM
     test t
  LEFT JOIN
     detail d ON t.id = d.item

Also, you can use multiple columns to check their NULL by COALESCE function. For example:

mysql> SELECT COALESCE(NULL, 1, NULL);
        -> 1
mysql> SELECT COALESCE(0, 1, NULL);
        -> 0
mysql> SELECT COALESCE(NULL, NULL, NULL);
        -> NULL