joining on columns with null value

I have to join two tables. all of the columns can be null. However, if there 
are nulls and the rest of the fields are the same, I want to join to succeed.I 
did a test case where i assumed that if i used the following, I would get a 
record returned even if there are nulls. 
where nvl(tableA.column,0) = nvl(tableB.column,0)

If both of these fields are null and i have the rest of the columns equivalent, 
this will not give me a record returned. 

However, if i do:

where tableA.column1||tableA.column2||tableA.column3 = 
tableB.column1||tableB.column2||tableB.column3

then i get a successful join if one or more of the fields is null but atleast 1 
is not. 
this is pretty ugly. Any better way to do this? 

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