Re: [Q] Porting SQL to Oracle

"Scott Mattes" <Scott_at_TheMattesFamily.ws> wrote

> See, didn't I tell you it was a religous type thing!
>
> Look, Hue-Mon, what care we for semantics? If'n I say 'where field = null'
> should produce a result of all records where that field is null; I shouldn't
> have to have special syntax of 'where field is null'.
>
> Save us from purists and bean counters!

Scott, the problem with NULL is that people think of it as some kind of value that is assigned. Nothing to do with purity or beancounting, and everything to with ignorance.

NULL is a state like INFINITY. In fact, NULL is the exact opposite from INFINITY.

When I say X = (infinity), what value does it contain? No value - infinity is a CONCEPT and not a value, right? What is the size of column X? Undefined, right? There is no size to infinity.

Similarly, if I say X = (null), what value does it contain? No value. What is the size of column X? Undefined. Like infinity, null does not have a size.

There's nothing strange or weird about it. We have two states. One that contains "everything". One that contains "nothing". Neither have a size or contain an "unknown value".. They are sizeless and valueless. They are mere symbols depicting abstract concepts.

--
Billy