Re: BLANK OR NULL

xavierp@semic.es (Manel Falc') wrote: :Hi Nils, : :I understand your judgement but the life is more complicated... :It's true that a good design is the most important but :we make bussines programmes and we have a lot of :issues to solve. I halfhartedly agree with this. Sometimes we have to make some strange designs. :Look at this example: :master_table rel_table : ( pri_key char(4) not null , (pri_key char(4) not null, : sec_key char(4)) sec_key char(4)) : :select r.* : from master_table m, rel_table r : where r.pri_key = m.pri_key and : r.sec_key = m.sec_key :This will not function if there are some null value in the second key :but I'd want so ... Well, but it doesn't give the bussiness case why you want it. May be if you gave us the real data someone could help you with a different design. :Putting a blank value is the solution but it's a problem when :the user wants to make a query for example Yes, and it doesn't sound like a good solution at all - as you say. :This is a reflection (song to wind) about null values and how to make :better its handling (maybe by some function, ...) Or maybe by some redesign? Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org