My throat still isn't recovered enough to get back on the phone and try and earn some money so I spent time yesterday researching the good old null and empty string issue to decide what to do.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with heretical views but it does seem that NULL's supporters are highly intense in their support. I especially like the fact that Firebird have produced a 51 page document (http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-Null-Guide.pdf) smashing reading (yawn).

My current thinking is the best route since I really don't care wether its unknown or empty is to set a default of '' (can we have an EmptyString constant Tim please just to save confusion in the printed text - not important but would be nice) and NOT NULL for all my VARCHAR's, get rid of every IS/IS NOT NULL in my SQL and all .IsNull's and .Clear's from my Pascal.

That's the easy (decision not doing) one. I'm still working on what to do with integers, floats, blobs, clobs, dates, times and timestamps.

Thoughts, ideas, and comments welcome.

Roy Lambert

My thoughts on nulls are they = bugger all zilch nowt f@@k all
nothing more annoying than NULLS but thats an opinion.
Whats a clob I dont have the latest offerings from TimEvate.
I do thank u for the FB link tho sumthin to read later.
Rita

"Roy Lambert" <roy.lambert@skynet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:A6FE85EE-49D5-47AC-B5BB-B1B79F22276E@news.elevatesoft.com...
> My throat still isn't recovered enough to get back on the phone and try
> and earn some money so I spent time yesterday researching the good old
> null and empty string issue to decide what to do.
>
> I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with heretical views but it does seem
> that NULL's supporters are highly intense in their support. I especially
> like the fact that Firebird have produced a 51 page document
> (http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-Null-Guide.pdf) smashing
> reading (yawn).
>
> My current thinking is the best route since I really don't care wether its
> unknown or empty is to set a default of '' (can we have an EmptyString
> constant Tim please just to save confusion in the printed text - not
> important but would be nice) and NOT NULL for all my VARCHAR's, get rid of
> every IS/IS NOT NULL in my SQL and all .IsNull's and .Clear's from my
> Pascal.
>
> That's the easy (decision not doing) one. I'm still working on what to do
> with integers, floats, blobs, clobs, dates, times and timestamps.
>
> Thoughts, ideas, and comments welcome.
>
> Roy Lambert

Rita


Its a religious thing or at least that's what it seems to be

Roy Lambert

Roy

Are u saying its some kind of cult we have been suckered into
and Tim is going to do something awful to us full of blue tabs ?
Or is it nothing to worry about like null ?
Rita waiting for Whacko feds with eyeful tower pistols


"Roy Lambert" <roy.lambert@skynet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EF92CAD3-1DC9-4702-B7B6-4D6E66989416@news.elevatesoft.com...
> Rita
>
>
> Its a religious thing or at least that's what it seems to be
>
> Roy Lambert
>

Roy,

<< My current thinking is the best route since I really don't care wether
its unknown or empty is to set a default of '' (can we have an EmptyString
constant Tim please just to save confusion in the printed text - not
important but would be nice) and NOT NULL for all my VARCHAR's, get rid of
every IS/IS NOT NULL in my SQL and all .IsNull's and .Clear's from my
Pascal. >>

That's the easiest way, yes.  It avoids the issue of trying to force a blank
string to a NULL in triggers, etc.

<< That's the easy (decision not doing) one. I'm still working on what to do
with integers, floats, blobs, clobs, dates, times and timestamps. >>

Except for BLOBS and CLOBS, which work like strings in terms of NULLs, the
other types work exactly the same as DBISAM, therefore you shouldn't have to
do anything.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com