Field-dependent labeling for one set of features

[ElliottD]

In Pro 3.3, I have a set of cities whose names I want to label based on two fields, NAME and NAMEALT. If the city has a NAMEALT, I want to use that name. If it does not, I want to default to NAME. I thought that by using defaultValue in Arcade (see screenshot), it would return the NAME value if no NAMEALT value was detected. What am I doing wrong?

[BarryNorthey]

I did a few tests and the syntax appears to be correct. The value field might have invisible blank spaces that could cause the problem. Python lstrip() can remove leading blank spaces.