RE: NULL's on the Iseries

> From: Raul A. Jager W.
> 
> I designed a lot of systems without NULLs, I understand there is no
> hardware support for them, so they need to be implemented as extra
bits
> in the file (not prety).
> But missing information is a fact of life in DataBase design, and
NULLs,
> in the way they are implemented, do the job for me.  The behavior of
> nulls is consistent in all the DataBase engins that adhere to the ISO
> standars, so I find it more convenient to accept the way they work,
and
> use them when they make my job easier.

And this I have no problem with.  NULLs are just another tool.  They are
not some holy grail cast in stone; they are simply a shortcut added by
the very smart but also very human folks who wrote the ISO standards.

You don't call programming "bad" or even "non-standard" just because it
doesn't use NULLs; in fact, as the paper shows, some of the great minds
in database theory think just the opposite: that NULLs are poor
programming practice.

The point is that, like anything else in this business, it comes down to
a business decision.  If a NULL works for you, great.  Make sure it fits
with the standards of your organization and that it is properly
maintainable down the road, and there's no reason you shouldn't use
NULL.  Me, I'll be just as happy to never see another COALESCE
statement.

Joe