Ok. So I need to handle inequality differently. Equality doesn't need to change since, if something is equal to a non-null value, then it won't be equal to a null value.
So what other operator types need special handling? NOT_LIKE? NOT_LIKE_IGNORE_CASE? NOT_BETWEEN? Are these the only ones, or am I missing something? On 8/19/06, Mike Kienenberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Apparently, life gets worse. Oracle makes it very difficult to compare outer join record values. Nulls do not equal anything, nor do they "not equal" anything. http://thinkoracle.blogspot.com/2005/06/nulls-in-oracle.html So if I want to compare any column from a left outer join, I have to explicitly handle the nulls somehow. For example, use nvl to provide an alterate default value whenever a null is found. ( (nvl(RTRIM(t4.IS_ACTIVE), 'N') <> 'Y') Should something like this be automatically done for any outer join implementation? We can't use nvl genericly, but we can add another clause: (x is null) or (x <> 'Y') for an inequality. (x is not null) and (x = 'Y') for an equality Apparently the behavior can vary from database to database and even between join and search clauses for some databases. No end of fun.
