How should I deal with null parameters in a PL/SQL stored procedure when I want to use them in comparisons?

Question

I have a stored procedure with a parameter name which I want to use in a where clause to match the value of a column i.e. something like

Answer 1

What you have done is correct. There is a more concise way, but it isn't really better:

where nvl(col1,'xx') = nvl(name,'xx')

The trouble is, you have to make sure that the value you use for nulls ('xx' is my example) couldn't actually be a real value in the data.