What about casting the decode result? Like:

cast(decode(1 = 1, 'a', 'ab') as varchar(2)) || 'c'

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Carlos
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w> is there any shortcut to make 'x' a varchar instead of char in sql
w> expressions? for instance,

w> decode(1 = 1, 'a', 'ab')||'c'

w> returns 'a c' instead of the more intuitive 'ac'... casting all
w> constants to varchar makes expressions unreadable. if beating up a
w> dead horse, then sorry for the noise.