Sending a Null Value in a Store Proc

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Sending a Null Value in a Store Proc

RedBirdOBX

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Points: 1836
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May 23, 2013 at 9:25 am

#277804

Newbie question here. But...if I don't ask, I dont learn.
Writing and testing a new SP which will insert data to a table. While testing, I'm trying to essentially send NULL (is that even possible) since the field accepts Null values. For example....
EXEC sp_InsertCustomer
@strFirstName = 'Peter',
@strLastName = 'Parker',
@strAddress1 = '1000 Street',
@strAddress2 = '#500',
@strAddress3 = '',
@strCity
...etc...
The problem is @strAddress3 is sending an empty string. I do not want that. I want nothig/Null to go into that field.
I've tried various versions of this:
@strAddress3 = Null,
@strAddress3 Null,
@strAddress3 Is Null,
..etc...but doesn't work.
If address3 is truly Null, should I just omit this declaration and one line of code? Or is there way to test using a Null?
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Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 1

RedBirdOBX (5/23/2013)
Newbie question here. But...if I don't ask, I dont learn.
Writing and testing a new SP which will insert data to a table. While testing, I'm trying to essentially send NULL (is that even possible) since the field accepts Null values. For example....
EXEC sp_InsertCustomer
@strFirstName = 'Peter',
@strLastName = 'Parker',
@strAddress1 = '1000 Street',
@strAddress2 = '#500',
@strAddress3 = '',
@strCity
...etc...
The problem is @strAddress3 is sending an empty string. I do not want that. I want nothig/Null to go into that field.
I've tried various versions of this:
@strAddress3 = Null,
@strAddress3 Null,
@strAddress3 Is Null,
..etc...but doesn't work.
If address3 is truly Null, should I just omit this declaration and one line of code? Or is there way to test using a Null?

There is more than 1 way to handle this. If an empty string is what you consider to be NULL then you could do a couple of things. You could add some code in the calling program to send NULL if the value is ''.

You could alter the store proc declaration so that it has a default of NULL for @strAddress3 and not pass that value.

i.e.:

create proc

...

@strAddress3 = NULL,

...

Or you could alter your proc and have it check for ''.

create proc

..

AS

if @strAddress3 = ''

set @strAddress3 = NULL

Does this help?

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004406 More actions · Answer 2

Sean Lange (5/23/2013)
create proc
..
AS
if @strAddress3 = ''
set @strAddress3 = NULL
[/code]

Or just...

SELECT @strAddress3 = NULLIF(strAddress3,'')

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First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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mister.magoo SSC-Forever Points: 47174 More actions · Answer 3

Yes, you can pass a NULL into a stored proc.

Try this:

create proc testNullParam @p1 varchar(10),@p2 varchar(10)=null,@p3 varchar(10)

as

select @p1 as p1, @p2 as p2, @p3 as p3

go

exec testNullParam @p1='test',@p2=null,@p3='test'

You get this:

+--------------------+

¦[highlight="#808080"] p1 [/highlight]¦[highlight="#808080"] p2 [/highlight]¦[highlight="#808080"] p3 [/highlight]¦

+------+------+------¦

¦ test ¦ NULL ¦ test ¦

+--------------------+

MM

select geometry::STGeomFromWKB(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