Thanks for the response. I'm not sure that is exactly what is happening for me.
I tried an example where I created a dummy database and a dummy table. If I create a column with decimal datatype and insert 2 different rows, one blank and one null, they both are treated as nulls. This is what I would like, but it does not work this way when I try to import a csv. When I try to import a csv file with either null or blank values for a decimal datatype, they both get treated as 0.00 (if we are using DECIMAL(12,2)). I think the issue has to do with the way MySQL 5.2 Workbench imports csv values. I experimented with a few different tests, but I haven't found a way to successfully treat null decimal values being imported from a csv as nulls in the database without just making the whole column a VARCHAR(255) datatype, which does seem to allow for nulls, but just seems like the wrong way to solve the problem. On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroe...@gmail.com > wrote: > On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 8:14 PM, Fred G <bayespoker...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > 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? > > A DECIMAL column is either going to contain a decimal number or > NULL; 'blank' isn't a term that even makes sense in this context. > > If you want NULL rather than 0 for a non-specified value, insert it > that way. > > -- > Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroe...@gmail.com > http://about.me/hassanschroeder > twitter: @hassan >
