Re: postgresql vs mysql

From: Lincoln Yeoh <lyeoh(at)pop(dot)jaring(dot)my>
To: Tim Tassonis <timtas(at)cubic(dot)ch>, Chris <dmagick(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: Erick Papadakis <erick(dot)papa(at)gmail(dot)com>, pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: postgresql vs mysql
Date: 2007-02-22 16:12:16
Message-ID: 200702221614.l1MGE7ue043348@smtp6.jaring.my
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At 10:22 PM 2/22/2007, Tim Tassonis wrote:
>Chris wrote:
>>An empty string is a KNOWN value. You know exactly what that value
>>is - it's an empty string.
>>A NULL is UNKNOWN - it doesn't have a value at all.
>
>I do still think it is a bit of an oddity, the concept of the null
>column. From my experience, it creates more problems than it
>actually solves and generally forces you to code more rather than
>less in order to achieve your goals.
>
>But as it is a fundamental, defined part of the sql standard, one
>just has to live with it.

Well it can be useful to have a column like:
foo integer not null default null

That means someone/something must specify a value for foo when doing
an insert. They can't just hope for the best that there's a default...

I think that works on postgresql but not on MySQL (see back on topic :) ).

Have fun!
Link.

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