On 24/03/17 08:50, Svein Erling Tysvær wrote: > I would expect changing defaults for fields that didn't have a default > when records were inserted and that haven't explicitly received any > value since, to be something that isn't all too common. Normally, I > would expect running an "update T set F1 = 'XYZ' where F1 is null" > shortly before or after setting such a default (assuming this would set > the value even if issued after setting the default), but this may be > just me and/or Fb 2.5. Note that I never work against huge databases.
I'm in the same camp as SET, especially if one is now adding a 'NOT NULL' constraint to a field that contains NULL values. If one is not adding the 'NOT NULL' constraint, then *I* would expect those fields to still return NULL even after adding a DEFAULT 'NEW' because that is value to REPLACE the NULL when ADDING a new record. If this is not the case now, then my understanding is wrong, but in my case adding the the NOT NULL would go hand in hand and the old records HAVE to be populated manually prior to adding it? If later you need change a default then it is up to the business logic to decide if old records change to the new default, and at this point it becomes even more important that the 'unset' fields can be identified from the 'old default' ones? If your logic is now replacing the returned data with a different value to that actually stored, then I would say THAT is a bug. If the stored field is NULL then either the query should return that or contain the logic to display it as something else, it should not be 'magic' depending on some other settings? -- Lester Caine - G8HFL ----------------------------- Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot Firebird-Devel mailing list, web interface at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-devel
