Re: Strange result with select/not null/OR

I think that is because if sp_link = '' then sp_link is not null.

There was another thread recently about the null vs ''.

Vincent Hikida,
Member of Technical Staff - Urbana Software, Inc.
"A Personalized Learning Experience"

www.UrbanaSoft.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fernando Papa" <fpapa(at)claxson(dot)com>
To: <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 12:48 PM
Subject: [GENERAL] Strange result with select/not null/OR

Hi all!

I get a strange result with this query:

SELECT count(*)
FROM CONT_CAT
WHERE id_instal = 2
and id_cat = 2
and (sp_link IS NOT NULL OR sp_link <> '')

I have one row with an empty value ('') on sp_link, so, when I execute
the query expect 0 on the result.
I don't know why the result is 1.
If I only put the last part ("sp_link <> ''") everithing goes ok.
But I need to check both conditions, IF is null and IF is empty. And I
can't understand why doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

--
Fernando O. Papa
DBA

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