---
title: "coalesce | Grafana Agent documentation"
description: "Learn about coalesce"
---

# coalesce

`coalesce` takes any number of arguments and returns the first one that isn’t null, an empty string, empty list, or an empty object. It is useful for obtaining a default value, such as if an environment variable isn’t defined. If no argument is non-empty or non-zero, the last argument is returned.

## Examples

![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```none
> coalesce("a", "b")
a
> coalesce("", "b")
b
> coalesce(env("DOES_NOT_EXIST"), "c")
c
```