Neil Zanella wrote:
SQL92, AFAIK, specifies that if the primary
key is not explicitly set to NOT NULL then the RDBMS should automatically
and silently assume the user means NOT NULL.
Sounds like the end of the world to me ;)
I suppose you have to get excited about something...
No need to belittle Neil's question; he's quite right about this. One of the main strengths of SQL is its standardization; that makes up for a multitude of other sins within it. Any time an implementation is non-standard, that means extra work in switching from one RDBMS to another, and extra time which must be spent learning the product. There are better challenges to spend one's time and money on than compensating for such deficiencies.
(This is not to say that MySQL is a poor product, of course -- it has many wonderful features. *Most* (or perhaps all) SQL implementations don't meet the standard in all ways, and in each such case, it's a problem with the product.
Extensions, by the way, are another story... although they may not be in the standard, they allow you to take advantage of something not yet supported by standard SQL. That has the same disadvantages as I pointed out above, but it also has corresponding advantages. Leaving out a feature that was specified in a standard 11 years ago doesn't fall into this category, though!
Bruce Feist
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