Re: AW: SQL null indicators when not all columns are null capable

The native SQL scalar functions deal with nulls, but will provide wrong
results if you use *hival or zero or negative values.

Zero will not affect "SUM", but it may be a valid value. If you use
something else, you will need to "SUM .. where not xxx", and that can
become very ugly if there is more than one column.

CRPence wrote:

Nathan Andelin wrote:

We occasionally have to write an extra "if" statement that
outputs an empty string to a browser field when a date field
contains *loval. That's actually pretty rare because we normally
call procedures to properly format date fields into character
strings.

The use of scalars such as COALESCE() and IFNULL() when selecting
the data for output via SQL, typically eliminates such if-statement
logic in the programs.

But it always seems easier to handle *loval situations than *null
situations, so we never allow *nulls in our database tables.

Any specific example that might elucidate that opinion?

Regards, Chuck