title: Return Empty String in place of Oracle NULL/Python None when pulling data from Oracle using cx_Oracle
body: <p>When I pull data using the cx_Oracle module, None is returned in place of Oracle NULL. At this point I'm using the below function to convert None to empty string.</p>
  
  <pre><code>def xstr(s):
      if s is None:
          return ''
      return str(s)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a way to make the cx_Oracle module to return an empty string instead of None?</p>