I've had to deal with the same thing. This only applies to character type fields (char or varchar). You get a NULL if you never referenced that field during an insert or an update. You get an empty string if you do. My solution was to always include all fields in my initial insert actions. That way they will always have an empty string in them if they don't have some other value.
I can then search for an empty string instead of using IS NULL. Once you update your code to do this, you can just update all NULL character fields with an empty string, and you're all set. Stefan At 05:10 PM 11/6/2002 -0800, you wrote:
The <NULL> vs just a blank field is not consistent in my MSSQL 2000 database. Sometmes it enters the <NULL>, sometimes not. This is causing a problem is a search action, which identifies the <NULL> and the "blank" as two seperate values, so I get two or more rows returned for the same individual. (My initial search brings back "unique" individuals meeting the search criteria. A drill down link is provided if the user wants to see all the activities associated with a particular individual. The drill down still works for individuals that are showing up more than once, but it is annoying to me and disconcerting to the users.) Suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
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