Re: 4 the FAQ: Are Commercial DBMS Truly Relational?

From: Marshall Spight <mspight_at_dnai.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 00:48:59 GMT
Message-ID: <%F%9d.153335$wV.82298@attbi_s54>

"Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote in message news:J9SdnUjaIoazlfXcRVn-tg_at_comcast.com...
>
> "Kenneth Downs" <firstinit.lastname_at_lastnameplusfam.net> wrote in message
> news:irs8kc.9nv.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
>
> > Hmmm, have never needed NULLS myself, and the customers have never
> > complained. I believe they can always be engineered out. Let the flames
> > begin :)
> >
>
> I use NULLS freely myself, RDM be damned. Sometimes it's a fairly trivial
> feature of the data, like people with no middle initial. In that case,
> I'm either going to plug in a dummy value, like blank, or let SQL make it
> a NULL. And in that case, I really don't care which it does.

With a better type system, the question wouldn't even come up. But we're stuck with SQL for now, so your approach is virtually inevitable.

> But that's not the way I design. Call me an unrepentant sinner, but I use
> NULLS.
You, sir, are an unrepentant sinner. I do the same thing. But I dream of a world where I won't have to.

Marshall Received on Sat Oct 09 2004 - 19:48:59 CDT