Re: Re Wher != and NULLS

Peter Wages wrote: > > Thanks Jonathan and Jack - > > Doesn't NULL mean the absence of value. That is different from > unknown . Unknown implies that a field has a value, except nobody knows > what it is. Absence of value means that something definetly has no value. > > To say something is unknown involves religion and GOD. Databases don't > get into that sort of stuff. > > ciao > p > > ****************************************************************************** > Peter Wages > EDS Arlington, Virginia > pmwages@cais.com > Work: (703) 741-7436 Home: (202) 244-3511 > Anywhere is walking distance, if you have the time > ****************************************************************************** One of the nicest little discussions on NULL with INFORMIX data bases was written by Mark Sobel in his book, "Building Applications Using a 4GL". If I am not mistaken, NULL in 4GL should be treated as a garbage value, and not the '\\0' we think of in C. :-) Tim -- \\\\|// (6 6) -----------oOOo---( )---o00o------------------------------- Tim Schaefer Motorola: tschaefe@paging.mot.com Worldwide: tschaefe@shadow.net Homepage: http://www.shadow.net/~tschaefe Liberty: www.lp.org www.cato.org -----------------------------------------------------------