How to compare different values in sql server

Question

I must to check if two values, X and Y are different. If both are null, they must be considered as equal.

The unique way I found is:

select 1 as valu         


        

Answer 1

I think you could use COALESCE for that

WHERE coalesce(@X, '') <> coalesce(@Y, '')

What it does it returns an empty string if one of variables is null, so if two variables are null the two empty strings become equal.