Path: newssvr20.news.prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!pd7cy2so!pd7cy1no!shaw.ca!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-04!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Daniel Morgan Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.misc Subject: Re: VARCHAR2: NULL value vs. empty string Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 09:49:06 -0800 Organization: ATS Message-ID: <1071251255.44416@yasure> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cache-Post-Path: yasure!unknown@oracle.advtechserv.com X-Cache: nntpcache 2.4.0b5 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 33 Xref: newssvr20.news.prodigy.com comp.databases.oracle.misc:133970 NoName wrote: >>is there _any_ way (Server Parameter?) to make Oracle store empty >>strings in Varchar2s without converting them to NULL? > > > Thanks, Oracle, that automatically convert empty strings into NULL values!!! > > I've been working using a RDB which did differences between empty and > nulls... oh, what a mess... in testing, sorting, searching... a nightmare! > > Just a curiosity, why do you need to distinguish NULLS from empties? Because the ANSI standard allows vendors the ability to implement the standard any way they wish. Oracle chose one way, others chose another way. Do keep in mind that Oracle has been around a very long time. And many of Oracle's design decisions were made before there was an ANSI standard for databases. So as long as Oracle's implementation met the standard there was no reason to change. Keep in mind the obligation is for you, the developer to learn the tool you are using. Not for Oracle, or any other vendor to do is the Microsoft way just because Mr. Gates has such cool haircuts and more money than god. -- Daniel Morgan http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp damorgan@x.washington.edu (replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)