CREATE TABLE a_test (id INT NOT NULL, c VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL, d DATE NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO a_test (id) VALUES (123);

select ifnull(cast(d as signed), -1) ddd
from a_test t
where d is null

select ifnull(c, 'is null') ccc
from a_test t
where c is null

DROP TABLE a_test;
CREATE TABLE a_test (id INT NOT NULL, c VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL, d DATE NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO a_test (id) VALUES (987);

INSERT INTO a_test (id) VALUES (123);

# The following options will be passed to all MySQL client.
[client]
port                  = 3306
socket                = /tmp/mysql5.sock
character-sets-dir    = /usr/local/mysql-5.5/share/charsets
default-character-set = cp1251

[mysqld]
character-set-server = utf8 
init-connect = "set names cp1251"
tmpdir = /tmp
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
skip-external-locking
key_buffer_size = 16K
max_allowed_packet = 1M
table_open_cache = 4
sort_buffer_size = 64K
read_buffer_size = 256K
read_rnd_buffer_size = 256K
net_buffer_length = 2K
thread_stack = 128K
server-id   = 1

[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M

[mysql]
no-auto-rehash

[myisamchk]
key_buffer_size = 8M
sort_buffer_size = 8M

[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout

    id  c       d         
------  ------  ----------
   987          0000-00-00