Oracle NVL function

Preamble

Oracle/PLSQL NVL function allows you to replace the value when there is a Null value.

Oracle/PLSQL syntax of NVL functions

NVL( string1_id, replace_with_id )

Parameters or arguments

• string1_id – string which is checked for a Null value.
• replace_with_id – the return value if string1 is Null.

NVL function in the following versions of Oracle/PLSQL

Let’s look at some examples of the Oracle NVL function and learn how to use the NVL function in Oracle PLSQL.

SELECT NVL(suppl_city, 'n/a')
FROM suppls;

The SQL query above will return ‘n/a’ if the suppl_city field contains a Null value. Otherwise, it will return the suppl_city value.

Another example of using NVL function in Oracle/PLSQL:

SELECT suppl_id,
NVL(suppl_desc, suppl_name)
FROM suppls;

SQL query will return suppl_name field if suppl_desc contains Null. Otherwise, it will return suppl_desc.

Last example of using NVL function in Oracle/PLSQL:

SELECT NVL(commission, 0)
FROM sales;

SQL query will return 0 if the commission field contains Null value. Otherwise, it will return the commission field value.

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