Re: select NULL||'abc' returns empty string (or NULL)

From: "Steve SAUTETNER" <ssa(at)informactis(dot)com>
To: <holger(at)marzen(dot)de>, <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: select NULL||'abc' returns empty string (or NULL)
Date: 2002-02-27 12:39:11
Message-ID: BKEHJDOFOAHJBCOBCHJGIEBNCMAA.ssa@informactis.com
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postgresql returns null for null||'abc'.
null means 'unknowm' so if you concatenate something known
with something unknown, the result is unknown.

You probably want to do :

select *
from tab
where (case when col1=null then '' else col1)
||(case when col2=null then '' else col2) ilike '%bla%';

Steve.

-----Message d'origine-----
De : pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org]De la part de Holger Marzen
Envoye : mercredi 27 fevrier 2002 12:26
A : pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Objet : [GENERAL] select NULL||'abc' returns empty string (or NULL)

I suppose that PostgreSQL insists that a NULL value cannot be
concatenated with a string. Can I cast this somehow? I noticed that
feature when I did a

select * from tab where col1||col2 ilike '%bla%'

and it did't find rows where one of the columns was NULL. Any ideas for
workarounds?

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