RE: Air pocket char fields.

I hate to ask the obvious question.

Why are you counting the number of blank spaces? Seems like a questionable design to me.

If you want a count where the column contains all spaces, why not just:

Select count(*) from table where rtrim(column,' ') is null

Just asking.

Tom

-----Original Message-----

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Joel.Patterson_at_crowley.com Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 3:51 PM To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: FW: Air pocket char fields.

I sent this to a couple DBAs, which warranted it to be posted for comment.

Do you know why this is? Shouldn't a CHAR field size 15 return all the records where the field is 15 spaces when requested? Should it not return all rows if <> anything but 15 spaces?

Oracle 11.2.0.1
Field is CHAR(15) NOT NULL
Min(length(activity)), max(length(activity)) = 15

714196 + 3744244 = total rows in table.

select count(*) SIXTEEN from lawcrp.mmdist where activity = ' ';

   SIXTEEN

   3744244

select count(*) FIFTEEN from lawcrp.mmdist where activity = ' ';

   FIFTEEN

   3744244

select count(*) FOURTEEN from lawcrp.mmdist where activity = ' ';

   FOURTEEN
---------- THIRTEEN, TWELVE, ELEVEN, ... THREE, TWO,
   3744244

select count(*) ONE from lawcrp.mmdist where activity = ' ';

       ONE

   3744244

select count(*) ZERO from lawcrp.mmdist where activity = '';

      ZERO

         0

select count(*) "<> ZERO" from lawcrp.mmdist where activity <> '';

   <> ZERO

         0

select count(*) "<> ONE" from lawcrp.mmdist where activity <> ' ';

    <> ONE

    714196

select count(*) "<> TWO" from lawcrp.mmdist where activity <> ' ';

    <> TWO
---------- THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, ... THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN,
    714196

select count(*) "<> FIFTEEN" from lawcrp.mmdist where activity <> ' ';

<> FIFTEEN

    714196

select count(*) "<> SIXTEEN" from lawcrp.mmdist where activity <> ' ';

<> SIXTEEN

    714196

Joel Patterson
Database Administrator
904 727-2546

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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Thu Dec 08 2011 - 06:36:12 CST