Re: Oracle's treatment of null and empty string

Thanks for confirming this for me, I didn't believe our DBA because other databases I've used make a distinction between the two.

I can code around this absurdity now that I know of it :/ -- it's just irritating, since there's a very significant difference between a null and an empty string. I.E. null means I don't know the value, empty string means that is the value. IMO it's the equivalent of saying 0 = null for a numeric.

On 14 Feb 1998 22:08:55 GMT, markp28665_at_aol.com (MarkP28665) wrote:

>From: ragoczy_at_SolarBears.fan.org (Paul Jackson) >>
>I'm a developer and our DBA told us today that Oracle 7.3 makes no distinction
>between a null value and an empty string in varchar or varchar2 column. <<
>
>Oracle handles null values in accordance to the ANSI standard. A null value
>indicateds the absence of a value, i.e., it is unknown. Two null columns do
>not compare equal, but return a null. The result of any comparision is true,
>false, or null. I like to think of it as true or 'not true' instead of false.
>
>An empty string is often called a null string, and a null is a null by any
>name.
>
>Your DBA was correct. The Application Developers Guide explains the data types
>very well. You may want to see if your account has one. It has a lot of good
>charts in it that can help you with you code.
>
>Mark Powell -- Oracle 7 Certified DBA
>- The only advice that counts is the advice that you follow so follow your own
>advice -
>
Received on Sat Feb 14 1998 - 00:00:00 CST