How to "where any of(b,c,d,e,f,g,h..) is null" with SQL(not PL/SQL)

Question

With the combinations of case, decode and coalesce function this can be done via pl/sql function, but is it possible to do it with SQL(any similar operator for this need I mean).
This need is because this is a report and the data processed is large so if this can be done within SQL engine it may help with performance.
Best regards.

Answer 1

I don't think coalesce is what you need, but maybe I'm missing something here.
You can use some nested nvl2 expression, but why doing it complicated. As s.rajaram says, using the or-operator will do just fine.
SQL> create table mytable
  2  as
  3  select 1 b, 1 c, 1 d, 1 e, 1 f, 1 g, 1 h from dual union all
  4  select 1, 1, 1, 1, null, 1, 1 from dual union all
  5  select null, null, null, null, null, null, null from dual union all
  6  select 1, null, 1, null, 1, null, 1 from dual
  7  /
Tabel is aangemaakt.
SQL> select b, c, d, e, f, g, h
  2       , coalesce(b,c,d,e,f,g,h)
  3       , nvl2(b, nvl2(c, nvl2(d, nvl2(e, nvl2(f, nvl2(g, h, null), null), null), null), null), null) anyone_null
  4    from mytable
  5  /
B  C  D  E  F  G  H COALESCE(B,C,D,E,F,G,H) ANYONE_NULL
1  1  1  1  1  1  1                       1           1
1  1  1  1     1  1                       1
1     1     1     1                       1
4 rijen zijn geselecteerd.
SQL> select b, c, d, e, f, g, h
  2    from mytable
  3   where nvl2(b, nvl2(c, nvl2(d, nvl2(e, nvl2(f, nvl2(g, h, null), null), null), null), null), null) is null
  4  /
B  C  D  E  F  G  H
1  1  1  1     1  1
1     1     1     1
3 rijen zijn geselecteerd.
SQL> select b, c, d, e, f, g, h
  2    from mytable
  3   where b is null
  4      or c is null
  5      or d is null
  6      or e is null
  7      or f is null
  8      or g is null
  9      or h is null
10  /
B  C  D  E  F  G  H
1  1  1  1     1  1
1     1     1     1
3 rijen zijn geselecteerd.Regards,
Rob.