Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-15 Thread Mattia Merzi
2009/3/14 mich...@j3ksolutions.com: [...] So instead of thinking that I am an idiot, try using your intelligence and try to understand what I am really talking about! ... instead, try to point us to a chapter of a book or take your time and write a short paper, 'cause my (stupid) intelligence

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-15 Thread Claudio Nanni
This is from an application design perspective, not while you a creating a table or constructing an insert statement. I do not think it is possible to design an application not caring about the data model it relies on. And I am sorry if people like me who write the code need to add 'IS NOT

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-15 Thread Don Read
On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:19:51 +0100 Claudio Nanni said: This is from an application design perspective, not while you a creating a table or constructing an insert statement. snip If you control your code, after retrieving the values from the database , you should have something like

Re: Fwd: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-14 Thread michael
Think! I'm not talking about how you application is designed. If your applications allows an employee to be entered without a position in the company, it is a bad design. If a manager at my company hired someone, and did not know what work the new-hire would be doing, well I'd really need to ask

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-14 Thread Ray
snip I agree with most everything you said, as far as the use of a RDBMS, and especially: quoting you, theoretically you break up your data into tables so that there is never a non-applicable field for any given row. Here is where I disagree with you, and please DON'T take this as an

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-14 Thread Claudio Nanni
Hi everybody I want to join as well. But hypothetically speaking, what value would you use if you didn't have a I don't what this is value like null? I ask this because I started programming when NULL was really zero, and part of the ASCII collating sequence. NULL was zero I'd use

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-14 Thread Morten
I certainly appreciate this discussion and the clear opinions of Mike. Somehow it turned my somewhat simple question into something much more interesting. I believe in referential integrity, I also believe that enforcing a fully saturated data model like Mike proposes, is a constraint on

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-14 Thread Mattia Merzi
2009/3/13 mich...@j3ksolutions.com: I have a database logging weather data. When a station does not report a temperature, it is set to NULL. It would be a very bad idea to set it to 0 as this would ruin the whole statistics. NULL is a perfectly valid information in many cases. I'd use

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-14 Thread michael
Claudio Nanni wrote: Hi everybody I want to join as well. The question is: Will I allow a record to contain a 'non-informative' field ? No! thats not the question! [a] Ok, go ahead. [b] No, set the field as NOT NULL If you choose [b] please assume your responsibilities. Everytime you

Re: Fwd: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-14 Thread Johan De Meersman
It's a good thing, then, that we've got your experience to rely on. Woe is us, for not having any, and not seeing how obviously right you are. You're entitled to your opionion on NULLs, but kindly stop spamming *my* mailbox with it. I was aware of your dislike for them after the first mail. On

Re: Fwd: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-14 Thread Chris W
Arthur Fuller wrote: Exactly the point. Michael, NULL *is* information. It means unknown and that is in itself useful information. A common example: A new employee is hired but which department she will work in is unknown. So the data entry person enters all the known information and leaves

avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-13 Thread Ray
On Friday 13 March 2009 09:48:36 Michael wrote: I'm sorry for the rant, but nulls in databases make me see red! NULLS ARE GARBAGE! You are using a 'NULL-safe equal to operator', meaning, WHERE NOT group_id = 3, and oh, by the way, I DON'T WANT ANY NULLS TO QUALIFY AS 3. And yes this will

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-13 Thread michael
On Friday 13 March 2009 09:48:36 Michael wrote: I'm sorry for the rant, but nulls in databases make me see red! NULLS ARE GARBAGE! You are using a 'NULL-safe equal to operator', meaning, WHERE NOT group_id = 3, and oh, by the way, I DON'T WANT ANY NULLS TO QUALIFY AS 3. And yes this

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-13 Thread Thomas Spahni
On Fri, 13 Mar 2009, mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: Explanation(5): The more you understand how the database is to be used, and the more complexity and thought you put into your database design, the less complex it will be to retrieve reliable information out of it. Furthermore, (and this is

Re: avoiding use of Nulls (was: The = operator)

2009-03-13 Thread michael
On Fri, 13 Mar 2009, mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: Explanation(5): The more you understand how the database is to be used, and the more complexity and thought you put into your database design, the less complex it will be to retrieve reliable information out of it. Furthermore, (and this

Re: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-13 Thread Andy Wallace
ggghh mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: On Fri, 13 Mar 2009, mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: Explanation(5): The more you understand how the database is to be used, and the more complexity and thought you put into your database design, the less

Re: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-13 Thread PJ
mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: On Fri, 13 Mar 2009, mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: Explanation(5): The more you understand how the database is to be used, and the more complexity and thought you put into your database design, the less complex it will be to retrieve reliable

Fwd: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-13 Thread Arthur Fuller
Exactly the point. Michael, NULL *is* information. It means unknown and that is in itself useful information. A common example: A new employee is hired but which department she will work in is unknown. So the data entry person enters all the known information and leaves the rest until it has

Re: avoiding use of Nulls

2009-03-13 Thread Arthur Fuller
On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Andy Wallace awall...@cisdata.net wrote: ggghh mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: On Fri, 13 Mar 2009, mich...@j3ksolutions.com wrote: Explanation(5): The more you understand how the database is to be used, and