I'm sorry that I haven't written in awhile with my findings. I have
completed the FoxPro->ODBC->Access test and the Access ODBC driver
returns a NULL for empty dates. I've also read up a bit more on ODBC
and have figured out the following:
1. ODBC doesn't really support the idea of an empty date. There just
isn't a representation for it. However...
2. ODBC does support returning NULL values, so...
3. Empty dates represented as NULL will have to be an adequate solution
to the issue. This means...
4. ODBC sending data from client->odbc->server with empty dates
translating as NULL should be acceptable, maybe even for the majority of
cases, and
5. ODBC sending data from server->odbc->client with NULL as a date is
the only real representation that can be afforded to any client.
The option to pass "empty dates" as NULLs in client->odbc->server might
be one you wish to make available on a permanent basis; or better yet,
just quietly perform the translation in all cases as a default
behavior. Any comments or suggestions about making it permanent? Will
it mess something up elsewhere?
P.S. I want to personally thank you, Hiroshi, for your tireless time and
effort in looking into this issue. Your willingness to entertain this
new feature is a refreshing break from other open source projects that I
have interacted with in the past, many of which didn't bother to even
look at requests, much less think about them. My hat is off to you.
