>>I'm doing a left outer join on two tables. I'd like the NULL's for the unmatched values (for the right-side table) to show up as blank's and 0's rather than NULL's. What's the easiest way? TIA.
>
>Hello Keith,
>
> Here is something easier than using a UNION.
>
> Use NVL() functions as follows.
>
> SELECT order.custid,NVL(customer.custname,' ')
> FROM ....
>
> See help of NVL() for more details.
>Bye
>Jayesh

It's Ok, but NVL fired for each record will slow down SELECT dramatically. This is why UNION is better.