On 1/28/07, Martin Ebourne <li...@ebourne.me.uk> wrote:
I'd like to point out here and now that getting a null value result from a SQL query is NOT FUCKING EXCEPTIONAL. DON'T THROW AN EXCEPTION, WANKERS!
If only I could get an exception! I once dealt with a vendor whose modelling software took an "innovative" approach to dealing with null values from an ODBC source. Before this vendor, my feeble mind could only conceive of two possible options: 1) Interpret the null value as a zero. (I was expecting this behavior, even though it's hateful in its own way.) 2) Throw a null value exception. (More hateful, but I could deal with it.) No, this vendor tried number 3: 3) Look back to find the last non-null value it received from that column, and then substitute that old value for NULL. The subsequent conversation with the vendor was even more exasperating, as they tried to convince me it wasn't a bug.
