RE: Hex '00' to Hex '40'?

Ok, here's more for the story.

The web front end is using cold fusion.  On the web form, there are 3 fields
for item numbers that the user can enter in.

They enter an item number in the first field, but leave the other two blank.
These last two fields when mirrored from the SQL database to our AS/400 are
the ones causing the problems (coming across as X'00').

The SQL database is set up to have a default null value for the columns, but
since they are filling these columns from a web form, whatever was in the
form is inserted into the column.

To me, this doesn't make sense.  When I read standard input using CGI, if
the field is blank, the field is blank (x'40').  Blanks should not have a
problem transferring through data mirror.

So, here is what I figure is going on..

The field is not null (X'00')
The field is not blank (X'20') or (X'40') 

i have no idea what the hex value of the field is in the SQL database before
it comes over.  I talked to the programmer and he said it's blank.  Now, I'm
guessing he doesn't mean blanks, but just empty.  So if you copied it to a
CSV file, three text fields, one with a value and two blank, would look like
this...
"value1",,

instead of

"value1","",""

Or would it be the other way around?

Does this help?  
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