James Lean (3/31/2010)
That would seem to be a very specific case, I wouldn't have thought it was a good reason to make a general case for using COALESCE over ISNULL. Personally I do tend to use COALESCE, even with only two arguments. That way, if you do need to add more arguments in future you don't have to worry about changing it. Unless I do need to take advantage of the implicit CASTing to the first argument's type, in which case I'll use ISNULL. As always, I suppose, "it depends". 😉
Indeed it does depend.
I think it's a shame, in a way, that almost every QotD or thread that mentions ISNULL or COALESCE always attracts a certain element determined to prove that one is always better than the other. (I'm not including you in that, by the way)
My own view is that the two functions are very different, and each has its merits. I use both regularly, depending on the query I am writing. I realise that such a balanced view lacks any sort of excitement factor, but there it is 🙂
Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi