Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-3.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15666B5DC00 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:33:52 -0300 (ADT) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by maia.hub.org (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 67085-04 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:33:45 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.8.0-rc2 Received: from gw.wicourts.gov (gwmta.wicourts.gov [165.219.244.99]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E15F3B5DC09 for ; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:33:44 -0300 (ADT) Received: from Courts-MTA by gw.wicourts.gov with Novell_GroupWise; Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:33:44 -0500 Message-Id: <4E79AF70020000250004150D@gw.wicourts.gov> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 8.0.1 Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:33:36 -0500 From: "Kevin Grittner" To: "Henry Drexler" , Subject: Re: coalesce References: In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.404 tagged_above=-5 required=5 tests=BAYES_00=-1.9, RP_MATCHES_RCVD=-0.504 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201109/64 X-Sequence-Number: 6985 Henry Drexler wrote: > "If the results of the first argument are null, it will return the > second." Unless the second is also null, in which case it will return the third. Unless the third is also null... The trick is to come up with language which recognizes that there can be any number of arguments. Personally, I think the existing language does a good job of that, and is pretty clear. > so I made this example that makes sense: > > COALESCE(column,substitute value) Perhaps a two-argument example would be helpful, as long as it doesn't mislead people into thinking the construct is limited to two arguments. -Kevin