look at coalesce() or isnull()

select isnull(a.fieldname,'') as myfield

>I'm joining table A - always present with table B - not always present - in a query that returns some columns from A and one column from B- let's called it bcolumn.
>I'd like bcolumn to contain the value from table B with there is a row in table B and spaces if there is no row in table B, rather than nulls.
>
>I've hit a creative wall today.
>Help!