Re: Oracle NULL vs '' revisited

From: Paul Linehan <plinehan__A_at_T__yahoo__D.OT__COM>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:22:03 GMT
Message-ID: <f9%yi.21680$j7.397426@news.indigo.ie>

Mark D Powell wrote:

> I have always had difficulty with the concept that an empty string
> should not be considered a NULL value to begin with. What does an
> empty string hold?

Take an ex-girlfriend of mine, she had a child in the States and *_specifically_* didn't give her (the child) a middle name.

So, Middle_Initial is blank '' - and not NULL, since it is a known quantity - as Donald Rumsfeld might say, a "known unknown".

NULLs are unknown unknowns. Despite Mr. Rumsfeld's verbal gymnastics, there is no such thing as an unknown known.

You concatenate blank with a string, and you simply get the string back - do the same with NULL and you get NULL.

I'd say NULLs are readily distinguishable from blank strings.

Paul...

> IMHO -- Mark D Powell --
Received on Wed Aug 22 2007 - 13:22:03 CDT