Actual text value of Null

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Actual text value of Null

samartel

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June 24, 2015 at 8:14 am

#318499

Quick one for you all. I dont have access to test this or I would but I know you all are quick to help a brother out.
I have an instance where a process is trying to insert a Customer into the Customers table and CustomerLastName is a non nullable field. Customer's last name is Null. Should this be the reason this Customer is never in the end table?
Thanks in advance,
Steve

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ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 1

samartel (6/24/2015)
Quick one for you all. I dont have access to test this or I would but I know you all are quick to help a brother out.
I have an instance where a process is trying to insert a Customer into the Customers table and CustomerLastName is a non nullable field. Customer's last name is Null. Should this be the reason this Customer is never in the end table?
Thanks in advance,
Steve

SQL Server distinguishes between NULL and "Null", so no, this isn't the reason.

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samartel SSC-Addicted Points: 492 More actions · Answer 2

samartel

SSC-Addicted

Points: 492

June 24, 2015 at 8:28 am

#1807764

Cheers.

Appreciate the time

Steve

sgmunson SSC Guru Points: 110640 More actions · Answer 3

ChrisM@Work (6/24/2015)
samartel (6/24/2015)
Quick one for you all. I dont have access to test this or I would but I know you all are quick to help a brother out.
I have an instance where a process is trying to insert a Customer into the Customers table and CustomerLastName is a non nullable field. Customer's last name is Null. Should this be the reason this Customer is never in the end table?
Thanks in advance,
Steve
SQL Server distinguishes between NULL and "Null", so no, this isn't the reason.

That might depend on how the INSERT was done. I can imagine a scenario where the SQL is dynamically constructed and the value was inappropriately checked for either a genuine NULL value or a text value of Null with a case-insensitive comparison, and the net result is that the customer's actual inserted record might have an empty string because the developer at the time didn't quite know what to do with such because it is a required field, and just decided to assign an empty string. I'd like to think that this is unlikely, but given some of the things I've seen over the years, it wouldn't surprise me. Do a SELECT from that table WHERE the last name field is checked for equality with 'Null' and be sure to include the single quotes. If that doesn't bring back that record, then try and find out enough other details to identify that record and see what the last name field's value is.

Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

samartel SSC-Addicted Points: 492 More actions · Answer 4

Interesting.

I will need to deep dive into this to get a better perspective.

Thanks again,

Steve

sgmunson SSC Guru Points: 110640 More actions · Answer 5

samartel (6/24/2015)
Interesting.
I will need to deep dive into this to get a better perspective.
Thanks again,
Steve

If you can find out approximately when the data record was added, you might be able to look at what should be a small subset of the table based on an "updated date" field, assuming such a field exists.

Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)