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RE: Display NULL values

Posted in 2000

Topics: Stored Procedures & SPL, Versions, Editions & End-of-Life

Bernstein, Rick — — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

With IDS 7.3, you could use the NVL function to translate null columns to a non-null value. For example: SELECT NVL(column_a,'?'), ... FROM .... However, this technique assumes that column_a contains character data. -----Original Message----- From: Johan den Boer [mailto:jj.den.boer@hccnet.nl] Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 3:23 PM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Display NULL values Hi, Is there a way to display null value columns like '?' Johan den Boer

↪ replying to Bernstein, Rick
Alexey Kirich — — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Hi! Have seen this: > With IDS 7.3, you could use the NVL function to > translate null columns to a non-null value. > > For example: > SELECT NVL(column_a,'?'), ... > FROM .... > > However, this technique assumes that column_a contains character data. Well. Do you know that this function doesn't frees the memory? I mean if you will use this function often (for example in SELECT statement) your server will allocate more and more memory. Why? It's knowing bug with this function in IDS 7.30. So, against using NVL, you should use CASE expression. Regards, Alexey Kirich.

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