SELECT not null column from two columns

Question

I have a table that has two columns, one of which will be NULL and one will not, what I would like to do is something like:

SELECT (column1 OR column2) AS value

But I need to retrieve the value that is not null. I feel like this is probably an easy question, but any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

SELECT COALESCE(column1, column2) AS value

or

SELECT IFNULL(column1, column2) AS value

or

SELECT CASE WHEN column1 IS NOT NULL THEN column1 ELSE column2 END AS value

or

SELECT IF(column1 IS NOT NULL, column1, column2) AS value

Answer 2

In mysql, you can use the IFNULL function. In SQL Server, you can use ISNULL function.