help!! problem in update, replace null with empty string ''

From: Frank Yu Fang <yfang_at_oss-dev.gte.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 09:37:40 -0500
Message-ID: <38565634.14E3589A@oss-dev.gte.com>

Friends:
  I'm using Oracle 8.
  I want to replace all null values in a column with empty string (i.e. ''). Here is what happened:

  Originally:
  SQL> select id from nrigateway where COMMUNITY is null;

        ID

---

        90
        93

  I update:
SQL> update nrigateway set COMMUNITY='' where COMMUNITY is null;

2 rows updated.

 Now let's see:
SQL> select id from nrigateway where COMMUNITY is null;

        ID

---

        90
        93

The values are still null!!!!!!

 '' is not even put in:
SQL> select id from nrigateway where COMMUNITY='';

no rows selected

SQL> Please help. I couldn't find anything in Oracle document. Received on Tue Dec 14 1999 - 08:37:40 CST