Re: Null Capable Fields

[Mark Lazarus <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Hans,

At 08:25 AM 10/12/99 -0400, you wrote:

>Our intention was that in the future, if there were enough demand,
>we would possibly provide more support in this area.  Perhaps
>something like a ALWNULL(*FULL) option.

 As an aside, I believe that one rule the developers should keep in mind is
that any integral feature put into the DB must be easily accessible via all
(mainstream?) mechanisms that are used to access data.  This would include
(but is not limited to) RPG, SQL, Query, Cobol, and dare I say CL.

 How many people used the date data types before RPG fully implemented
them, i.e. when it was a compiler option?  I suspect not too many.

>The workaround is the brute force approach.  For each field declared
>internally that you want to treat as null-capable, define an
>indicator field that maintains the null attribute.   Then, every
>time you copy a null-capable field, also copy that indicator value.

 Please make this as automatic and easy as possible.  It seems that other
platforms / implementations make null support a lot easier and more intuitive.

 -mark

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