title: Using COALESCE with numeric values
body: <p>I have the following code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>set @mystring = coalesce(numericval,'');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What I want is the following behaviour:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>numericval is null - set @mystring to blank</li>
  <li>numericval is not null then convert this to a string and set @mystring</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I can't coelesce this to a numeric value, because that value will be output, and I can't convert it while it's null.</p>
  
  <p>How can I achieve this?</p>