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Empty string instead of NULL

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Topic

dr223
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

444 Posts

Posted - 2010-06-15 : 12:02:19

Hi,

I have the following code which works fine but instead of the highlighted field being NULL it is an empty string. How can I make the select statement insert "No Category". Presently, it is inserting an empty string. category_name has been set as nvarchar(50).

Thanks

SELECT DISTINCT 
                      TOP (100) PERCENT t3.ProjectID, t3.goldPatID, t2.prac_no, t2.prac_eid, t1.goldpracid, t1.vision_patid, t1.yob AS BirthYear, t1.mob AS BirthMonth, 
                      dbo.lkupPatientGender.Sex, ISNULL(t3.category_name, 'No Category') AS PatCategory, { fn NOW() } AS Entrydt, t3.LoadRef
FROM         GPRDTech.gprdsql.TblPracDetails AS t2 INNER JOIN
                      GPRDData.dbo.tblpatdetails AS t1 ON t2.GoldPracID = t1.goldpracid INNER JOIN
                      dbo.tblImport AS t3 ON t1.goldpatid = t3.goldPatID INNER JOIN
                      dbo.lkupPatientGender ON t1.gender = dbo.lkupPatientGender.Code
ORDER BY t3.goldPatID

webfred
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

8781 Posts

Posted - 2010-06-15 : 12:13:39

I think it is because there isn't a NULL in the column hence the ISNULL() has nothing to do...
Try:
ISNULL(NULLIF(ltrim(rtrim(t3.category_name)),''), 'No Category') AS PatCategory

No, you're never too old to Yak'n'Roll if you're too young to die.

madhivanan
Premature Yak Congratulator

22864 Posts

Posted - 2010-06-16 : 02:51:31

or

case when t3.category_name='' or t3.category_name is null then 'No Category' else t3.category_name end AS PatCategory

Madhivanan

Failing to plan is Planning to fail

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