COALESCE

The first of its arguments that is not blank.

Group: Logical. Compatible with DAX.

Syntax

COALESCE ( <expression1>, <expression2> [, <expression3>] … )

Parameter	Type	Description
`expression1`	Value	The first value to try.
`expression2`	Value repeatable	The value to use when the one before is blank; more may follow.

Returns

Same type as its values. The first of the values that is not blank, or BLANK when they all are.

Remarks

The values are tried from left to right, and those after the first one that is not blank are never evaluated.
Empty text and 0 are values, not blanks: COALESCE ( "", "x" ) is empty text.
COALESCE ( a, b ) is the short way to write IF ( ISBLANK ( a ), b, a ).
COALESCE ( [Measure], 0 ) shows 0 instead of nothing, but then every row has a value: a visual or SUMMARIZECOLUMNS no longer leaves out the rows with no data, and a table of products by day can grow to every product on every day.

Examples

The first value that is there

EVALUATE
ROW (
    "Blank, 5", COALESCE ( BLANK (), 5 ),
    "Blank, 0, 7", COALESCE ( BLANK (), 0, 7 ),
    "All blank", COALESCE ( BLANK (), BLANK () )
)

Blank, 5	Blank, 0, 7	All blank
5	0	(blank)

Zero for missing liters

EVALUATE
VAR Orders =
    DATATABLE ( "Product", STRING, "Liters", INTEGER, { { "Pils", 120 }, { "Cider", BLANK () } } )
RETURN
    ADDCOLUMNS ( Orders, "Liters or 0", COALESCE ( [Liters], 0 ) )

Product	Liters	Liters or 0
Pils	120	120
Cider	(blank)	0

Every row shows

The same measure as on the BLANK page, now with 0 for the products under the limit.

EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS (
    Products[Product],
    "Big sellers", COALESCE ( IF ( [Liters sold] > 500000, [Liters sold] ), 0 )
)
ORDER BY Products[Product]

Products[Product]	Big sellers
Cider	0
IPA	0
Lettøl	0
Pils	1004326

ISBLANK, IF, BLANK, SELECTEDVALUE, DIVIDE.

Last updated 3 November 2026 · OpenBI Studio 0.3.74