Roy,

My intention was not to start a discussion (again) about the merits and demerits of having null <> empty, that has been discussed over and over and we would only be repeating what has been said a thousand times.
In fact I said you are right, I also agree there are some drawbacks, namely those two that I pointed out.
Where our opinions might be different is in the perception that SQL standard restricts our freedom - I do believe that in this case it doesn't, on the contrary it gives us more options. And I always vote for freedom

<< Only if you apply two tests!>>
Thats not IMO a big deal, you already have to do that for all other types.

<<If I wanted to be silly I could apply that logic to getting rid of the integer type after all 1 is the same as 1.0>>
Again, that would reduce our options. And yeah it would be silly as they are not in fact the same.

--
Fernando Dias
[Team Elevate]

Fernando


I am quite happy for people to have different opinions to mine. I just get upperty when they try and hammer me into their mould.

However, I do have to ask do you really believe that 1 is not the same as 1.0? <vbg>

Roy

Roy,

> However, I do have to ask do you really believe that 1 is not the same as 1.0? <vbg>

Yes. Don't you ?
If you don't why do you find silly to to get rid of the integer type.

--
Fernando Dias
[Team Elevate]

Fernando

>> However, I do have to ask do you really believe that 1 is not the same as 1.0? <vbg>
>
>Yes. Don't you ?

I tend to take a actual physical world view of such things rather than a computer science view. If I order 1 wheel I think its pretty likely that I'll get exactly the same as if I ordered 1.0 wheels which to my simplistic world view makes them the same.

>If you don't why do you find silly to to get rid of the integer type.

Simply because its nice to have a way of saying don't bother putting a decimal point in, and also because computers handle integers better than floats so that inside the computer 1 may not equal 1.0 since the 1.0 would actually be 0.999999999999999999 so somesuch.

Roy

Roy,

Fair enough.
The ability to keep things simple isn't obviously a skill that I have, which
I recognize is not only is a bad thing for the software writing business,
but also might irritate people. Thanks for your patience .

--
Fernando Dias
[Team Elevate]

Fernando

>Fair enough.
>The ability to keep things simple isn't obviously a skill that I have, which
>I recognize is not only is a bad thing for the software writing business,
>but also might irritate people.

A desire for complexity must be programmed in at a genetic level - so many people have it. Its also encouraged by large amounts of the advertising we see which promotes the number of options and ignores the desirability (iie do they have any value rather than "must have" sense) of those options.

On the positive side it is a skill and can be learned - if it was a talent you'd be stuffed.

>Thanks for your patience .

I always enjoy these sort of discussions - after all one day I may learn something that will cause me to change my mind, or if nothing that radical at least learn something I didn't know before.

Roy