Exclude rows with null values

Question

I'm doing a bunch of sum queries:

SELECT col1 + col2 + col3 + ...

Some of the values in some of the columns are null. I'm checking for them by doing:

SELECT CASE WHEN col1 is not null and col2 is not null and ...

I wonder if there is a more concise syntax for accomplishing this task.

Answer 1

Well, since the sum of any number and null is null, you can do something like the following (with the obvious ... filled in):

select big_honking_sum
from(
    select col1+col2+col3+...+coln as big_honking_sum
    from some_table
)sum
where big_honking_sum is not null;