My coworker, Lena, informs me that this behavior also exists in SQL Server. It is imperative that defaulted columns be NOT NULL so that structure changes do not introduce garbage data.
Dennis McGrath ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dennis McGrath Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 11:10 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Expected behavior OR bug? Sami, I tested this in 7.6 DOS The same thing happens. It is certainly not what I would have expected, since I assumed 'default' would get applied only to new rows. In any case, given this behavior, I would certainly recommend that any columns with a default should also be NOT NULL. Dennis ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sami Aaron Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 10:47 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Expected behavior OR bug? I just had something occur that I don't remember seeing before and I wasn't sure if it was expected behavior or a bug that I should report. I noticed it in a V-8 database first and then tested it in 9.0 and it's the same. Start with a table with a currency column that has a default value of $100 in the field. Update some records in the table to change the value to a different number than $100 and also to change some to NULL. Then issue an ALTER TABLE ALTER SomeOtherColumn changing the width of a text field. What happens is that in the currency column, any records that had the original $100 changed to a different number retained the changed value - so that was correct. BUT any records that had a NULL value in the column now have the $100 there. What do you guys think? Thanks, Sami ____________________________ Sami Aaron Software Management Specialists 913-915-1971 [email protected] P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
