Re: Foreign key in Oracle Sql

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 15:23:57 -0800, DA Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 14:24:30 -0800, DA Morgan
>> <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote:
>>
>> [snip]

>>>NVL. Simple solution when it matters. But far better to design your
>>>database, no matter whether Oracle or Sybase, to not allow NULLs.

>> With Oracle, all bets are off if any of your strings can be
>> empty. If any can be, you get a NULL, like it or not.

>Well first of all everyone that writes code in any environment and
>isn't a fraud or a poser learns the strengths and weakenesses of
>that environment. So only a total moron would write an app in Oracle
>with empty strings: I certainly haven't in a decade. Because anyone
>that did would be providing prima-facia evidence that they couldn't
>or didn't read the docs.

     But I am often dealing with empty strings. Why can Oracle not handle this correctly? Why is it so important to you that Oracle not correct this?

>That said SELECT NVL(col_name, <value>) or NVL2(col_name, <value>,
><value>) solve any problem imaginable. In my opinion ... anyone that has

     Great. I get to type it every single time I have a string that might be empty.

     Your so-called solution is a kludge, and you are defending a kludge as being necessary.

>a problem with this probably has a clip on tie and can't tie their own
>shoe laces.

     How silly of you. Ad hom is rather rude. Neither assertion is correct either.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko Received on Mon Jan 24 2005 - 22:41:45 CET