Return string if NULL in T-SQL

[tsc]

Hi all. This is my first post to this forum. Go easy on me ;-)

I'm trying to return a result even if NULL as a string of results that are delimited. Apparently if one of the results are NULL, the entire thing is NULL. I haven't found anything yet to force a return of nothing. I'm sure this is probubly simple to do... I just haven't found it yet. Anyone?

Example:

SELECT (edocHeader + '_|_' + CAST(edocDate AS varchar) + '_|_' + edocDescrip + '_|_' + edocDep) AS DBDATA
FROM tbl_Docs Left Join tbl_Docs_Edit ON docEdit = edocID
WHERE docID = 2805 AND tID = 3

Although edocDate has data, I wanted the following "_|_1/1/2010_|_" and instead I get "NULL"

Thanks!

 

[tsc]

PS... this is MS SQL

 

[PTNL]

Is edocDate column actually a DateTime column?

 

[RedChief]

try this

SELECT (
isnull(edocHeader,'') + '_|_' +
isnull(CAST(edocDate AS varchar),'') + '_|_' +
isnull(edocDescrip,'') + '_|_' +
isnull(edocDep,'')) AS DBDATA
FROM tbl_Docs Left Join tbl_Docs_Edit ON docEdit = edocID
WHERE docID = 2805 AND tID = 3

 

[calebb]

Here's an article that you might find useful as well:

http://databases.aspfaq.com/database/coalesce-vs-isnull-sql.html

 

[tsc]

Thanks all!