SQL String Concatenation (||)

The operator form of joining text together — shorter to type than CONCAT, but propagates NULL through the whole expression.

What & Why

The || operator joins text values together, functioning like CONCAT for ordinary values — the difference only shows up when NULL is involved, covered in the previous lesson.

See How It Works

BUSINESS QUESTION

Product wants a readable feature and team label.

id	name	description	team	released_at	deprecated_at
1	Activation Checklist	Guides new users through setup	growth	2024-01-20	NULL
2	CSV Export	Exports report data	platform	2024-02-14	NULL
3	Invite Nudges	Prompts workspace collaboration	growth	2024-03-05	NULL
4	Legacy Dashboard	Original reporting surface	analytics	2023-08-10	2024-06-01

EXAMPLE QUERY

SELECT
  id AS feature_id,
  name || ' — ' || team AS feature_label
FROM product.features
ORDER BY feature_id;

RESULT — exact output from the displayed Queryflo rows

feature_id	feature_label
1	Activation Checklist — growth
2	CSV Export — platform
3	Invite Nudges — growth
4	Legacy Dashboard — analytics

The concatenation uses each displayed feature name and team.

Intermediate business practice