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

On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:52:50 GMT, mountain man wrote:

>"Hugo Kornelis" <hugo_at_pe_NO_rFact.in_SPAM_fo> wrote in message
>news:9j4so1h49jelr1rlfmcc48h89ta9ro2f6j_at_4ax.com...
>
>> Please tell me what dictionary you checked. Here are some quotes from
>> dictionaires I checked:
>
>In practice the dictionaries you need to check are the internal
>SQL Syntactical Help Files (and associated documentation)
>in respect of Ms SQL Server, Oracles' Oracle, IBM's DB2
>and then any other (R)DBMS providers which are outside
>of the above 3 market share.

(snip)

Hi Pete,

Not in this case. The point Mike was making (unless I misunderstood him) is that the term NULL should not have been chosen as the term to represent what NULL in SQL represents. His reason (again, if I understand him correctly) is that he thinks that NULL has a different meaning in mathematics ("empty set"), and that the difference between the mathematical NULL and the SQL database NULL is confusing.

Mike apparently has a dictionary that lists the mathematical meaning of NULL as the root meaning. Since a number of other dictionaries I checked use the legal definition of NULL ("invalid, not binding") as root word and place the SQL definition before the mathematical, I had become curious as to which dictionary Mike uses. That's why I asked.

Best, Hugo

-- 

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