Re:No Nulls? (was: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schem

Jesse,

    I'll refrain from personal comments, but on CJ's quote, he's correct. Nulls are an oddity. They cannot be true or false (<column_name> = NULL or <column_name> != NULL), nor can they equal anything. They are in effect a third logical state of nothingness. You also have to code most applications with indicator variables to check for their existence. All in all a real pain in the backside. BUT, if you give me the possibility that nulls exist in the data I much prefer using them vs. many a third party solution of a single space. No application that I can reasonably think of should use NULLS, except those pre-81 where there are obsolete columns.

Dick Goulet

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Author: "Jesse; Rich" <Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com>
Date:       10/14/2002 9:33 AM

On the link below is this quote from C.J.Date:

"I don't want you to think that my SQL solution to your problem means I advocate the use of nulls. Nulls are a disaster."

Of course, he doesn't expound upon it (probably not a need except for dummies like me). Anyone care to comment? (On the quote, not on my dumminess...)

Rich

Rich Jesse                           System/Database Administrator
Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com              Quad/Tech International, Sussex, WI USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robson, Peter [mailto:pgro_at_bgs.ac.uk]
> Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 4:59 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schemas
>
>
> Just for the record (and perhaps to confirm that there are
> always two sides
> to a story). Readers may like to see the article Chris Date
> wrote to Ralph
> Kemball on the subject of business rules and integrity constraints:
>
> http://www.dbdebunk.com/kimball1.htm

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