Re: So what's null then if it's not nothing?

"Hugo Kornelis" <hugo_at_pe_NO_rFact.in_SPAM_fo> wrote in message news:8q8qn1pc1p66manifsnkvhas1u3dmi6gj0_at_4ax.com...
> On 17 Nov 2005 14:08:15 -0800, michael_at_preece.net wrote:
>
> (snip)
> > For us Pickies it's easy - null is
> >equal to an empty string.
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> So that means that Pick can't distinguish an empty message from no
> message at all? Doesn't enable you to confirm that Pete has no academic
> title while still being unsure if Sue has one or not? Etc.
>
> (snip)
> > No such thing as maybe in computing. A bit is either on or it's
> >off. Simple.
>
> Yes, indeed. Much simpler than the real world, where things are not
> always black or white.
>
> Unfortunately, we have to use these simple bit's to represent the real
> world as closely as possible. Including the concept of "maybe, I don't
> know".
>

I honestly think there's no reasoning with Pickies. We look at the world too differently.

The best I can glean from what the Pickies have said in here, is that the issue of a cell with no value
is moot in Pick, because the absence of a value can always be represented by the absence of the cell that might have held it. That's what I'm reading into what the Pickies wrote.

This is not true in SQL, due to the fact that tables are rectangular, and data, for one reason or another, is stored in a form that's less than fully normalized.

De gustibus non disputandum est. Received on Fri Nov 18 2005 - 06:50:52 CET