github.com/hugorut/terraform@v1.1.3/website/docs/language/functions/coalesce.mdx (about) 1 --- 2 page_title: coalesce - Functions - Configuration Language 3 description: |- 4 The coalesce function takes any number of arguments and returns the 5 first one that isn't null nor empty. 6 --- 7 8 # `coalesce` Function 9 10 `coalesce` takes any number of arguments and returns the first one 11 that isn't null or an empty string. 12 13 All of the arguments must be of the same type. Terraform will try to 14 convert mismatched arguments to the most general of the types that all 15 arguments can convert to, or return an error if the types are incompatible. 16 The result type is the same as the type of all of the arguments. 17 18 ## Examples 19 20 ``` 21 > coalesce("a", "b") 22 a 23 > coalesce("", "b") 24 b 25 > coalesce(1,2) 26 1 27 ``` 28 29 To perform the `coalesce` operation with a list of strings, use the `...` 30 symbol to expand the list as arguments: 31 32 ``` 33 > coalesce(["", "b"]...) 34 b 35 ``` 36 37 Terraform attempts to select a result type that all of the arguments can 38 convert to, so mixing argument types may produce surprising results due to 39 Terraform's automatic type conversion rules: 40 41 ``` 42 > coalesce(1, "hello") 43 "1" 44 > coalesce(true, "hello") 45 "true" 46 > coalesce({}, "hello") 47 48 Error: Error in function call 49 50 Call to function "coalesce" failed: all arguments must have the same type. 51 ``` 52 53 ## Related Functions 54 55 * [`coalescelist`](/language/functions/coalescelist) performs a similar operation with 56 list arguments rather than individual arguments.