Re: CJ Date on Missing Information

Paul Mansour wrote:
> I've just read "The Default Values Approach to Missing Information" in
> Date's Database Writings 1989-1991. I've also noted that in the 8th
> edition of Date's main textbook, he refers to the "special values
> scheme' for handling missing information, and points to an article in
> Database Writings 1994-1997. I don't have the 94-97 book, though I am
> trying to track down a copy, and I'm curious to know if Date's view on
> handling missing information has changed since the 89-91 writings, or
> is it more or less the same. Any comments on this would be appreciated.

If your interest is exclusively on Date's current opinion, then I can't help you, although I might encourage you to look to a broader horizon. If you're interested in alternative ways the problem might be addressed, I'd point you to algebraic datatypes, such as appear in the SML language.

Marshall Received on Sat Mar 18 2006 - 20:06:14 CET