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Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.server -> Re: Unique constraint and NULL values
> yes, in theory, the SQL Server approach is more 'pure'
Not really. The SQL standard consistently defines all the nullable constraints (CHECK, UNIQUE, FOREIGN KEY) in the negative. In other words, the constraint doesn't permit violations (logical FALSE) but nor does it require that the constraint be satisfied (logical TRUE). The UNKNOWN case is not considered a violation of a constraint, which is why NULLs are permitted. Unfortunately Microsoft disagrees ;-)
-- David Portas SQL Server MVP --Received on Thu Oct 21 2004 - 17:49:08 CDT