SQL replace all NULLs

Question

I have a big table with some NULLs in it. What is the easiest possible way to select from the table with 0\'s instead of NULLs.

Or if there is no easy way to do that

Answer 1

I wanted a dynamic query to do the update option. Borrowing from the post above and another I have the following:

            USE [YOUR DATABASE] 
            DECLARE @tableName nvarchar(100) 
            DECLARE @name varchar(50) 
            DECLARE @dtype varchar(50) 
            DECLARE @CMD NVARCHAR (200) 

            SET @tableName = [YOUR TABLE NAME] 


            DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR 

                  SELECT c.name, t.name AS Dtype 
                  FROM sys.columns c 
                  INNER JOIN sys.types t 
                  ON t.system_type_id = c.system_type_id 
                  WHERE c.[object_id] = 
                      (SELECT [object_id] FROM sys.objects WHERE type = 'U' AND [NAME] = @tableName) 

            OPEN db_cursor 
            FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name, @Dtype 

            WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 BEGIN

            SET @CMD = 'UPDATE ' + @tableName + ' SET ' + quotename(@name) +' = ' + 

               (CASE 
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'bit') THEN '0' 
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'int') THEN '0' 
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'decimal') THEN '0' 
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'date') THEN '''1/1/1900''' 
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'datetime') THEN '''1/1/1900'''
                 WHEN (@Dtype = 'uniqueidentifier') THEN '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' 
              ELSE '''''' 
              END ) 
            + ' WHERE ' + quotename(@name) +' IS NULL' 

            PRINT @CMD 

            EXEC sp_executeSQL @cmd 

            FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name, @Dtype 

            END 

            CLOSE db_cursor 
            DEALLOCATE db_cursor

Answer 2

You have two options really

ISNULL(yourColumn,0) AS columnName

or to actually fix the issue and change all the NULL data to 0

UPDATE table
SET column = 0
WHERE
column IS NULL    -- remember "column = NULL" always equates to NULL!

When you do this dont forget the WHERE or everything will end up being 0!

Answer 3

Despite your reluctance to do so,

ISNULL(FieldName,0) AS FieldName

for each column is the correct way to handle this.