No More NULL

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No More NULL

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Ewan Hampson SSCrazy Points: 2780 More actions · Answer 1

Good one!

But surely it's more likely we'll see a new "Known Null", to contrast with "Unknown Null"....

tlough SSC Veteran Points: 211 More actions · Answer 2

Instead of an arbitrary baseline of 1/1/1900 for datetime, maybe something more memorable....like 4/1/1900?

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 3

tlough (4/1/2010)
Instead of an arbitrary baseline of 1/1/1900 for datetime, maybe something more memorable....like 4/1/1900?

What's special about the 4th of January? 😉

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Ben Moorhouse SSCrazy Points: 2385 More actions · Answer 4

Ben Moorhouse

SSCrazy

Points: 2385

April 1, 2010 at 3:57 am

#1143788

or in another format it's 1st April....?

😛

MarvinTheAndriod SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4972 More actions · Answer 5

great spotted all the april fools jokes so far to day except this one

peter.roothans Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 535 More actions · Answer 6

Hi,

To NULL or not to NULL. Its perhaps my IQ, but after years I'm still struggling with nulls. I consequently used to implement default values instead of NULLs, just to work around the NULL issues. Now I understand the meaning of NULL as in F=female,M=male, NULL=unknown ...

In GUI development it's often not described in the functional analysis. The example above I can handle easily with radiobuttons (female/male/unknown) but for other type of fields it's not always that obvious. If I have a blank textbox, should I return NULL or should I return '' to the database ... or should I in all scenarios put an aditional checkbox next to the textbox with the remark "unknown" although that was not specified by the analysists?

Finally, at this moment I have to write a daily procedure that loops data in a source database and updates specific fields in a destination database. If the matching key is absent in the destination database I insert. I the key exists in the destination, but no longer in the source I (logically) delete the row. In case the matching key exists in both databases I have to update, but only when some fields are changed ... and here I'm struggling again since it seems my approach does not always work ...

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM [dbo].

WHERE

= @key

AND

(f1 <> @f1

OR f2 <> @f2

OR ...)

BEGIN

UPDATE ...

SET modificationdate = getdate(),

...

WHERE = @key

It's about CASTS, or leading and trailing blancs (LTRIM/RTRIM), etc but also about comparing NULL with NULL or NULL with 0 or ''. So now I'm looking for a best approach to update only when something has really changed without making the error update is not executed while eg NULL has become 0.

Can someone point me a URL with best approach regarding my need?

Thanks in advance

Peter.

victor.olufowobi SSC Enthusiast Points: 191 More actions · Answer 7

Okay Steve, feel responsible for my broken screen 🙂

kamoskim SSC Enthusiast Points: 185 More actions · Answer 8

Wow.

I was just about to send this to my team saying... "see, I was right, nulls are bad and we are going to be doing things my way afterall"...

Then, I thought, "this is too good... though I seldom if ever comment on an article... I just have to put in my comment saying "it is about time"...

Now, I am sad.

Oh well, let's hope for the best anyway.

Nice joke.

-- Mark Kamoski

Ben Moorhouse SSCrazy Points: 2385 More actions · Answer 9

He he! Mark, you made me actually Lol!

Don't be sad 🙂

kamoskim SSC Enthusiast Points: 185 More actions · Answer 10

The funny thing is that I sent that email anyway.

Let's see if THEY pick up on it.

They are all too familiar with my rants against null, and they are unlikely to be newsletter subscribers, so this may be good.

Thanks.

-- Mark Kamoski

Chris_P SSCommitted Points: 1753 More actions · Answer 11

Damn you Steve! I was just about to post a rant about how I didn't agree, what a bad idea that was and what about ANSI standards.

Chris.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398886 More actions · Answer 12

I'm a sucker. I'm sitting here thinking about implications, wanting to take notes, getting ready to post questions to boards... I gotta remember the date when I read these things.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

spaghettidba SSC Guru Points: 105732 More actions · Answer 13

Nice one, Steve! Ok, I have to admit you fooled me.

-- Gianluca Sartori

Someguy SSCrazy Points: 2207 More actions · Answer 14

You know what they say - "No Nulls is good Nulls".

Or, something like that...

___________________________________________________
“Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”

Ralph Hightower SSCrazy Points: 2843 More actions · Answer 15

Ah Steve,

You had to spoil the joke with a disclaimer.

Of course, this is also an April Fool's joke and is in no way based on reality. It's entirely a work of fiction, and I hope you have a smile on your face at this point.

The joke would've been more effective without.