Hi-- I'm using MySQL 5.2 Workbench, and when I import a csv into MySQL, blank values become 0 when I define the datatype to be a DECIMAL (in our case (DECIMAL(12,2)). Since there is the potential for values to be 0, this poses a problem for us. I initially wanted to make all the DECIMAL values become VARCHAR(255), because I can still do inequality queries on this column if it is a VARCHAR, and VARCHAR does not mind blanks. It keeps them as is.
But I'm sure that I must be missing something here. Is there a way to use a DECIMAL-like operator that treats blanks as blanks? If not, is there a better strategy then making the relevant column a VARCHAR? Much thanks!