Re: teaching relational basics to people, questions

Sampo Syreeni wrote:

> [snip] And since
> one would have to have a bona fide range datatype, building in
> handling for infinite ranges would also be easy; that'd get rid of one
> of the most persistent reasons why people incorporate nulls into
> designs.

I think you are being excessively optimistic. The most persistent (and most common) reason people incorporate nullable columns into designs is because they have a misplaced desire to minimize the number of tables in the design, and think that conflating multiple fact types in one table is clever, efficient, and harmless.

-- 
Roy