MySQL if not null

Question

Is there a way to do the following without a CASE statement?

SELECT ifnotnull(field1, '!!!')

Now I'm currently doing the verbose:

CASE WHEN field1 IS NOT NULL THEN '!!!' ELSE field1 END

Answer 1

yes:

SELECT if(field1 is not null, '!!!', field1)

which would be the same as

SELECT if(field1 is not null, '!!!', NULL)

Documentation on IF is here.

Answer 2

Try COALESCE

SELECT COALESCE(field1, '!!!')