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Re: [Q] Porting SQL to Oracle

From: Malcolm Dew-Jones <yf110_at_vtn1.victoria.tc.ca>
Date: 12 Jun 2003 10:26:45 -0800
Message-ID: <3ee8b7d5@news.victoria.tc.ca>


Billy Verreynne (vslabs_at_onwe.co.za) wrote:
: andrewst wrote:

: > What you say above is true ... of the way Oracle treats the empty string
: > '', i.e. as synonymous with NULL. However, just because Oracle does
: > something a certain way, doesn't make it correct.

: Blasphemer!

: > Logically, '' is not the same as NULL, any more than 0 is the same as
: > NULL for a NUMBER column. '' is a value, NULL is not.

: Hey, you're not allowed to wear your pointy ears to the next Trekkie
: Convention. Not when you make illogical statements like that.

: Define what value is in between the quotes for ''.

Define what value is in between the quotes for 'abcdefgh'

-Either-

It's not a single value, it's an ordered set of values.

But, an ordered set of values with zero items exists and is still an ordered set of values, so if 'abcdefg' is a string then '' must also be a string.

-OR-

It's a single value, in which case it's clear that one attribute of the value is it's length.

But if the length is an attributes, then '' is clearly the same kind of value that simply has the length attribute set to zero. Realizing that items with a value of zero are still the same kind of item is something that the ancient babylonians struggled with - 3000 years ago.

-so-

I would say that using '' as a null is merely an oracle convention. Received on Thu Jun 12 2003 - 13:26:45 CDT

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