Re: Differentiate Between Zero-Length String and NULL Column Values - Mailing list pgsql-sql

From Andrew Sullivan
Subject Re: Differentiate Between Zero-Length String and NULL Column Values
Date
Msg-id 20070130131334.GD31676@phlogiston.dyndns.org
Whole thread Raw
In response to Differentiate Between Zero-Length String and NULL Column Values  ("Phillip Smith" <phillip.smith@weatherbeeta.com.au>)
Responses Re: Differentiate Between Zero-Length String and NULLColumn Values  ("Bart Degryse" <Bart.Degryse@indicator.be>)
List pgsql-sql
On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 04:32:22PM +1100, Phillip Smith wrote:
> SHAMPOO","EQUEST","401600","0.00","0.00","0.00","0.00","10.00",""
          ^^
 
>     SELECT * FROM tmpstk WHERE ean = NULL;                                        ^^^^

Along with what Michael Fuhr said in his post about equality and
NULL, Postgres doesn't treat the empty string and NULL as equivalent
(because they're not).  Only Oracle has that dodgy interpretation of
SQL, as far as I know.  If you want to use the empty string, you need 
WHERE ean = ''

If you want instead ean to be NULL, use the traditional \N to signify
NULL on your way in, or define null some other way.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan  | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
Users never remark, "Wow, this software may be buggy and hard 
to use, but at least there is a lot of code underneath."    --Damien Katz


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