Just to clarify, this doesn't seem to be in all versions of XP. If you're not on XP Professional (is anyone other than me stuck with XP Home?) try using...

Yes, COALESCE seems to me to be a safer option. Try this:

DECLARE @vcOne varchar(10)

DECLARE @vcTwo varchar(20)

SET @vcTwo = '01234567890123456789'

SELECT ISNULL(@vcOne,@vcTwo)-- will truncate to 10

SELECT COALESCE(@vcOne,@vcTwo)-- won't