class Coalesce(*expressions, **extra) [source]
Accepts a list of at least two field names or expressions and returns the first non-null value (note that an empty string is not considered a null value). Each argument must be of a similar type, so mixing text and numbers will result in a database error.
Usage examples:
>>> # Get a screen name from least to most public
>>> from django.db.models import Sum, Value as V
>>> from django.db.models.functions import Coalesce
>>> Author.objects.create(name='Margaret Smith', goes_by='Maggie')
>>> author = Author.objects.annotate(
... screen_name=Coalesce('alias', 'goes_by', 'name')).get()
>>> print(author.screen_name)
Maggie
>>> # Prevent an aggregate Sum() from returning None
>>> aggregated = Author.objects.aggregate(
... combined_age=Coalesce(Sum('age'), V(0)),
... combined_age_default=Sum('age'))
>>> print(aggregated['combined_age'])
0
>>> print(aggregated['combined_age_default'])
None
Warning
A Python value passed to Coalesce on MySQL may be converted to an incorrect type unless explicitly cast to the correct database type:
>>> from django.db.models.expressions import RawSQL
>>> from django.utils import timezone
>>> now = timezone.now()
>>> now_sql = RawSQL("cast(%s as datetime)", (now,))
>>> Coalesce('updated', now_sql)
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