Re: Useful Oracle books - C.J. Date theory vs. practicality

• Original Message -------- jo_holvoet_at_amis.com wrote:

> SAP doesn't use nulls. For char fields they typically use a single space,
> for dates (which they store in chars) they use '00000000', etc.etc.
> And yes, it is every bit as ugly and horrendous as you describe ... I
> assume in their case it is partly a legacy issue and partly a database
> independence issue ?

Legacy. SAP was initially developed to run on flat ISAM files. Which have no clue what a NULL is. Their entire design has not evolved one bit since then.

-- 
Cheers
Nuno Souto
in sunny Sydney, Australia
dbvision_at_optusnet.com.au
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