if isNull or if NOT isNull

[DrB1]

I cannot get this to work! I've tried a piece at a time and it works, but not together. What am I doing wrong?

=rNickName&' ' &LastName       (works giving me the rNickName space LastNamej)

=FirstName&' ' &LastName        (works giving me the FirstName space LastName

I am trying to say if the person has an rNickName put rNickName space LastName, if they do not have a rNickName put FirstName space LastName.  I can't get it to work. I've tried both of these:

=if(not isNull(rNickName),rNickName&' ' &LastName,FirstName&' ' &LastName)

=if(isNull(rNickName),FirstName&' ' &LastName,rNickName&' ' &LastName,)

Thanks Qlikie Gurus!!!

[rwunderlich]

Something like this can be tricky because an empty string is not null. I find the best solution to be:

Coalesce(EmptyIsNull(rNickName), FirstName) & ' ' & LastName

-Rob
http://www.easyqlik.com
http://masterssummit.com
http://qlikviewcookbook.com

[Vegar · Accepted solution]

Can it be that `rNickName` is blank and is not null.

=if(len(trim(rNickName))=0,FirstName,rNickName) &' ' &LastName

If it is null then try this:

=coalesce(rNickName, FirstName) & ' ' & LastName

[DrB1]

@Vegar   this is perfect!! =if(len(trim(rNickName))=0,FirstName,rNickName) &' ' &LastName

Thank you so much!!!

[DrB1]

I tried the coalesce but couldn't get it to work. Vegar's len trim worked.  What is the difference between Null and Blank? Null isn't zero, right?

[Vegar]

Null is no value. It is not a number nor a string.

With Blank I was referring to an empty string value: '' 

@rwunderlich : I wasn't aware that the EmptyIsNull() function exsists, it looks very handy for cases like this.