Question

SELECT a.one + ' test ' +b.two from table1 a right join table1 on a.id =b.id 

The problem is that when one is null then it the whole string is null, is there some kind of trick to bypass this problem
msSQL 2005

Answer 1

You are looking for the ISNULL function:

SELECT ISNULL(a.one,'') + ' test ' + ISNULL(b.two , '')
from table1 a 
right join table1 b 
  on a.id =b.id 

If the first argument of the ISNULL function is null, then the second argument is supplied.
This way, none of the concatenated fields will return a null and you will get a string and not a null.