Join two queries into one

Question

Is there a way to join this two queries into one?

query = "select foo from TABLE where foo like '%foo%'";

if (query.empty())
    query = "select bar from TABLE where bar like '%foo%'"

Update:

select ifnull(foo,bar) from TABLE where foo like 'foo%' or bar like '%foo%';

Thanks to Kamal for the idea

Answer 1

Edited

I just realised that this can return multiple rows - here's the fix:

select foo from TABLE where foo like '%foo%'
union all
select bar from TABLE where bar like '%foo%'
and not exists (select 'x' from TABLE where foo like '%foo%')

Using UNION ALL (not UNION) will be faster, because UNION sorts the results.

Edited

A request has been made for a non-union solution. I don't have one.

Answer 2

For Oracle

Select NVL(foo,bar) from TABLE where foo like '%foo%' or bar like '%foo%';