Concatenate first name, last name and middle name with comma - sql

Question

I want to concatenate 3 columns in SQL server as below:
MAX(LTRIM(RTRIM((ISNULL(LastName,'') +
', ' +
ISNULL(FirstName,'') +
', ' +
ISNULL(MiddleName,''))))) AS FullName
I have used value of this column in SELECT clause as:
MAX(FullName) AS FullName,
I would like to handle NULL values, in case all 3 last name, middle name and first name are BLANK or NULL. The query used above will show " , , " in case all 3 columns are NULL or BLANK. But I want to show "N/A" in such case.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could use a CASE expression:
SELECT MAX(CASE WHEN ISNULL(FirstName, '') = '' AND
ISNULL(MiddleName, '') = '' AND
ISNULL(LastName, '') = ''
THEN 'N/A'
ELSE LTRIM(RTRIM((ISNULL(LastName,'') + ', ' +
ISNULL(FirstName,'') + ', ' +
ISNULL(MiddleName,''))))
END) AS FullName
FROM yourTable
...

Answer 2

Check with COALESCE and then CASE Statement:
Declare #FirstName VARCHAR(50)='',#MiddleName VARCHAR(50),#LastName VARCHAR(50)
SELECT
CASE WHEN ISNULL(COALESCE(#FirstName,#MiddleName,#LastName),'')<>''
THEN ISNULL(#FirstName,'')+',' +ISNULL(#MiddleName,'')+','+ISNULL(#LastName,'')
ELSE 'N/A' END AS FullName

Answer 3

Use Concat like below this will do implicit conversion. So no need to use ISNULL.
select isnull(MAX(LTRIM(RTRIM((concat(LastName,
', ' ,
FirstName,
', ' ,
MiddleName,''))))) ,'n/a')AS FullName from table

Answer 4

The below method may seem quite complicated, but it does make adding or removing columns much simpler, and for all its perceived complexity it isn't actually doing that much under the hood, so doesn't add much overhead.
The first step is to unpivot each of your columns to rows with a common column name, so you would turn
FirstName MiddleName LastName
------------------------------------
A NULL C
Into
Name
------
A
NULL
C
Using CROSS APPLY along with the table value constructor VALUES
SELECT x.Name
FROM (VALUES ('A', NULL,'C')) AS t (FirstName, MiddleName, LastName)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (1, t.FirstName), (2, t.MiddleName), (3, t.LastName)) x (SortOrder, Name)
ORDER BY x.SortOrder
Then you can remove NULLs and blanks with WHERE ISNULL(Name, '') <> '', then you only have valid data to concatenate together which you can do using SQL Server's XML Extensions. So you end up with a full query like:
WITH TestData AS
( SELECT *
FROM (VALUES ('A'), (NULL)) AS f (FirstName)
CROSS JOIN (VALUES ('B'), (NULL)) AS m (MiddleName)
CROSS JOIN (VALUES ('C'), (NULL)) AS l (LastName)
)
SELECT t.*,
NamesConcat = ISNULL(STUFF(NamesConcat.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)'), 1, 2, ''), 'N/A')
FROM TestData AS t
CROSS APPLY
( SELECT ', ' + x.Name
FROM (VALUES
(1, t.FirstName),
(2, t.MiddleName),
(3, t.LastName)
) x (SortOrder, Name)
WHERE ISNULL(x.Name, '') <> '' -- NOT BLANK OR NULL
ORDER BY x.SortOrder
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
) x (NamesConcat);
Result
FirstName MiddleName LastName NamesConcat
-------------------------------------------------
A B C A, B, C
A NULL C A, C
A B NULL A, B
A NULL NULL A
NULL B C B, C
NULL NULL C C
NULL B NULL B
NULL NULL NULL N/A

Answer 5

select Isnull(FirstName,' ') +' '+ ','+ Isnull(MiddleName,' ')+' '+ ' ,'+ Isnull(Lastname,' ') as Name from personaldata
select FirstName +' '+','+ MiddleName +' '+',' + Lastname as Name from personaldata
Note: The Second query will work fine if all value present and if anyone is null then it will return null for Name, to avoid such kind of concern please use the first query.