RE: COALESCE not working as I expected

Although I can't find this documented on IBM's website, it appears TO_NUMBER
does not return NULL if the field is non numeric. Here is how I am coming
to that conclusion. I also see that if you do that using Oracle, you
receive an error, not null.

If I do the following from STRSQL

select coalesce(to_number('a'),'coalesce') from sysibm/sysdummy1;

I receive a bunch of plus signs

Position to line . . . . .
....+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4..
COALESCE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
******** End of data ********


If I select from a file that has a null field (without coalesce), I receive
a single hyphen.

Position to line . . . . .
....+....1
FIELD1
-
******** End of data ********