How to match not null + not empty?

Question

I have to do some queries on a messy database. Some columns are filled with either null or an empty string. I can do a query like this:

select * from a where b is not null and b <> '';

But is there a shortcut for this case? (match every "not empty" value) Something like:

select * from a where b is filled;

Answer 1

Just:

where b <> ''

will do what you want as null <> '' is null and the row will not be returned

Answer 2

select * from a where COALESCE(b, '') <> '';