In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Jigal van Hemert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> NULL is meant to indicate that the value is unknown. If a value is unknown > it can be anything. > So, in the example `col` <> 'blah', col can be anything, including 'blah'. > If you take that into consideration the only outcome of `col` <> 'blah' if > `col` = NULL *must* be NULL! > Fortunately there is function COALESCE() that will return the first argument > that is not NULL. In case of NULL values you can use a default value for an > expression: COALESCE( `col`*2, 14) will produce 14 if `col` is NULL. This idiom, albeit terse, is not something you should get used to, because it precludes index usage. -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
