Well, maybe my problem isn't necessarily on user input. My app does check for this and not allow empty strings. I guess the problem more so exists because I get files from the client to LOAD into the database. I have several SQL scripts in a library that I choose from to load the data, different scripts will be run based on the various formats the client sends to me to load the data. Maybe I should do a better job examining and tweaking my various scripts I have for checking and handling such empty string values when loading files. But I just wanted to build some kind of constraint into the database itself so just in case I forget certain details, maybe the constraint would be there within the database itself. I also plan to hand over such operations to other admins eventually and I wanted the constraint to be in the structure of the tables where necessary. I used to use PostgreSQL and I think this feature was easier to command using CREATE TABLE. I imagine this kind of feature would be an enhancement that could otherwise be avoided by a more aggressive quality control by a db admin but I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of "NOT EMPTY" constraint on a database considering NULL and an empty string ( '' ) are separate values. In the real world they really mean the same thing and the solution seems obvious to put such a constraint at the database creation level (in the structure) when you think about it in practical terms. That way you could have a safeguard so developers and db admins wouldn't have to worry about, especially when some them have very large sets of data to manage and pass among to different organizations when trying to integrate data between different systems, all of which, again, share the practical idea that an empty string is equal in value to a NULL value.
Ferindo On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 8:20 PM, Rob Wultsch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Ferindo Middleton > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Is there a way to not allow empty strings in the database for a data > type. I > > have a column set to not null but sometimes users enter empty strings > which > > are also unacceptable. How can I force MySQL to disallow empty strings > in > > addition to not null. > > > > Ferindo > > > > A trigger should work for you. > http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/triggers.html > > A far better option would be validating in your app. > > -- > Rob Wultsch > -- Ferindo Middleton Web Services 2.0 Java Servlet Container Administrator and Application Developer/MySQL and PostgreSQL Database Administrator/Infrastructure and Integration Management Specialist specializing in Linux/MySQL/Apache Tomcat web application development and open source solutions/Perception Augmentation and Artificial Synapsis Control Supplementation Research Specialist for AI Wetware-to-Software Interface and Design -Sleekcollar-
