?? Null Coalescing Operator --> What does coalescing mean?

Question

I\'m tempted to lie and say that English is my second language, but the truth is that I just have no idea what \'Coalescing\' means. I know what ?? \'does\' in

Answer 1

Here are some other definitions of coalesce that might help make sense. From Answers, it shows that it means to "grow together; fuse" or "to come together so as to form one whole." In other words, take a sequence of items and make one out of them. So considering that null in this discussion means "empty," coalescing null with a non-empty gives you the non-empty.