| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
 |
 | |||
| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
|
| |||
Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> Re: No Nulls? (was: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schem
RE: No Nulls? (was: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schemEND_EMPLOYEMENT date for still employed employees equals to "01/01/4000" (or any other pre-defined date in distant future).
Igor Neyman, OCP DBA
ineyman_at_perceptron.com
"No application that I can reasonably think of should
use NULLS, except those pre-81
where there are obsolete columns."
Everytime somebody says this to me, I ask them:
How do you handle still employed employees in an EMPLOYEE table that contains a END_EMPLOYEMENT date column?
What's your take?
-----Original Message-----
From: dgoulet_at_vicr.com [mailto:dgoulet_at_vicr.com]
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 2:29 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Subject: Re:No Nulls? (was: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schem
Jesse,
I'll refrain from personal comments, but on CJ's quote, he's correct. Nulls are an oddity. They cannot be true or false (<column_name> = NULL or <column_name> != NULL), nor can they equal anything. They are in effect a third logical state of nothingness. You also have to code most applications with indicator variables to check for their existence. All in all a real pain in the backside. BUT, if you give me the possibility that nulls exist in the data I much prefer using them vs. many a third party solution of a single space. No application that I can reasonably think of should use NULLS, except those pre-81 where there are obsolete columns.
Dick Goulet
____________________Reply Separator____________________ Author: "Jesse; Rich" <Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com> Date: 10/14/2002 9:33 AM
On the link below is this quote from C.J.Date:
"I don't want you to think that my SQL solution to your problem means I advocate the use of nulls. Nulls are a disaster."
Of course, he doesn't expound upon it (probably not a need except for dummies like me). Anyone care to comment? (On the quote, not on my dumminess...)
Rich
Rich Jesse System/Database Administrator Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com Quad/Tech International, Sussex, WI USA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robson, Peter [mailto:pgro_at_bgs.ac.uk]
> Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 4:59 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: Warehouse design: snowflake vs star schemas
>
>
> Just for the record (and perhaps to confirm that there are
> always two sides
> to a story). Readers may like to see the article Chris Date
> wrote to Ralph
> Kemball on the subject of business rules and integrity constraints:
>
> http://www.dbdebunk.com/kimball1.htm
--
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
--
Author: Jesse, Rich
INET: Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com
Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services ---------------------------------------------------------------------To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). --
Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services ---------------------------------------------------------------------To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Igor Neyman INET: ineyman_at_perceptron.com Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).Received on Mon Oct 14 2002 - 15:14:06 CDT
 |
 |