Return 0 if field is null in MySQL

You can use coalesce(column_name,0) instead of just column_name. The coalesce function returns the first non-NULL value in the list.

I should mention that per-row functions like this are usually problematic for scalability. If you think your database may get to be a decent size, it's often better to use extra columns and triggers to move the cost from the select to the insert/update.

This amortises the cost assuming your database is read more often than written (and most of them are).

Use IFNULL:

IFNULL(expr1, 0)

From the documentation:

If expr1 is not NULL, IFNULL() returns expr1; otherwise it returns expr2. IFNULL() returns a numeric or string value, depending on the context in which it is used.

None of the above answers were complete for me. If your field is named field, so the selector should be the following one:

IFNULL(`field`,0) AS field

For example in a SELECT query:

SELECT IFNULL(`field`,0) AS field, `otherfield` FROM `mytable`

Hope this can help someone to not waste time.