Re: unexpected NULL values

David Williams wrote: > > In article <36487DD2.B00@bayer.co.uk>, Peter Lancashire <Peter.Lancashi > re.PL1@bayer.co.uk> writes > >ProzessDV wrote: > >> > >> We migrate from an old database (DDB/4) to OWS 7.22 on SCO UNIX. When a row > >was > >> inserted on the old system into a char-column by a host variable containing > >> nothing ( colx = "") the database did not contain anything, either. But > >> informix inserts a NULL value into this column. Is there a way to leave our > >> code unchanged but to insert "nothing" ("") instead of a NULL value? > >> > >> Thanks in advance, > >> S'kr' > >NULL is nothing. You might prefer to have empty strings as blanks > WRONG!!!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!! SLAP!! WALLOP!! KICK!! SLAP!!! Ouch. Sorry for touching a raw nerve. Only trying to help. By "nothing" I meant undefined. I was trying to distinguish 1. nothing = NULL = undefined 2. empty string, zero-length string 3. blank string (a number of spaces > 0) Option 2 is available only in Online with VARCHAR as CHAR always blank pads. > > NULL=undefined... > > NULL != "", since "" is a defined value.. > > >strings. In a CHAR column, " " will fill the whole of the column with > >spaces. It compares = to " ". > > > >To change: UPDATE mytable SET mycharcol = ' ' WHERE mycharcol IS NULL. > > UPDATE mytable SET mycharcol = '' WHERE mycharcol IS NULL.> [I wish Informix 4GL would distinguish between space characters and parts of a field which contain nothing (no spaces, not null, nothing). And how might one distinguish an empty (not null) field from a null field to a user?] -- Peter Lancashire Information Systems Specialist, Bayer plc Eastern Way, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP32 7AH, UK Tel: +44-1635-562258, Fax: +44-1635-562281 -- If all else fails, read the instructions and the release notes. Join Infuse, the UK Informix User Group at http://www.infuse.org.uk/