Better way to structure a PL/SQL IF THEN statement ?

Question

Just wondering if there is a better way to write the following PL/SQL piece of code in ORACLE ?

IF(p_c_courtesies_cd is not null 
OR  p_c_language_cd is not null
OR v_c_name is not null
OR v_c_firstname is not null
OR v_c_function is not null
OR p_c_phone is not null
OR p_c_mobile is not null
OR p_c_fax is not null
OR v_c_email is not null
) THEN
     -- Do something
END IF;

Answer 1

If coalesce( expr1, expr2, ... expr_n ) is not null then do something end if;

See here.

(Thanks Tony for the correction)

Answer 2

if coalesce(expr1,expr2,...exprn) is not null then ...

Answer 3

Another way, exploiting the fact that Oracle treats NULL and '' as the same:

IF p_c_courtesies_cd 
   || p_c_language_cd 
   || v_c_name 
   || v_c_firstname 
   || v_c_function 
   || p_c_phone 
   || p_c_mobile p_c_fax 
   || v_c_email is not null
THEN
     -- Do something
END IF;

Answer 4

My answer would be a simple "No".

Although there are several alternative ways of writing the same construct, I don't think any are necessarily "better".

Anyone can look at the IF statement and know exactly what it means. The alternatives based around concatenation or using the coalesce operator just obscure the intent.