and probably stamp my feet and hold my breath until I turn blue!

Q. When does an empty string -= NULL
A. ALTER TABLE "Billing" ALTER COLUMN "_Company" AS VARCHAR(60) COLLATE "ANSI" DESCRIPTION ''

I think that's cheating <vbg>

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< and probably stamp my feet and hold my breath until I turn blue!

Q. When does an empty string -= NULL
A. ALTER TABLE "Billing" ALTER COLUMN "_Company" AS VARCHAR(60) COLLATE
"ANSI" DESCRIPTION ''

I think that's cheating <vbg> >>

It's a whole different issue.  The catalog tables population simply treats a
blank description as "not being populated" since there is no concept of
NULLs for catalog metadata like descriptions.  It's either there or not.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

<<It's either there or not.>>

Now you come to mention it - that's my attitude to VARCHAR's and CHARs in general - thanks for the straight line.

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< Now you come to mention it - that's my attitude to VARCHAR's and CHARs in
general - thanks for the straight line. >>

Yes, and that's exactly how they work.  A Null is simply a there/not there
flag.  The fact that you think an empty string "there" should the same as
"not there" is an argument that you can take up with the ANSI/ISO SQL
standards body.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

Yes, and that's exactly how they work. A Null is simply a there/not there
>flag. The fact that you think an empty string "there" should the same as
>"not there" is an argument that you can take up with the ANSI/ISO SQL
>standards body.

Don't worry if I ever get them round the back of the bike shed I certainly going to put my viewpoint forcibly.

Roy Lambert