Re: Newie Question (or am I nuts)
From: Roger Carlson (NO-Rog3erc-SPAM_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/15/04
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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 08:21:23 -0400
With all due respect, the "null thing" has been around much longer than 15
years. It is a fundamental part of the Relational Model which Dr. E. F.
Codd developed in the 70s. In 1985, Codd published a paper called "Is your
database really relational?". In this paper, he set down a number of rules
which a system must comply with to be considered fully relational.
The paper came about because of an increasing trend in the early 80s for
database vendors to describe their existing products as relational, or as
being 'based on the relational model'. At that time the term 'relational'
was a little understood industry buzzword (yes, like OOP or XML)
Rule #3 is as follows: "Null values (distinct from the empty character
string or a string of blank characters and distinct from zero or any other
number) are supported for representing missing information and inapplicable
information in a systematic way, independent of data type."
Now, you may ask: "What gives Codd the right to set the rules?" To which I
respond: "What gives the makers of Monopoly or Trival Pursuit the right to
set the rules?" Certainly, you can (and many people do) change the rules to
suit themselves. But if you are going to participate in the larger world
(say Monopoly tournaments), you better know and stick to the rules.
-- --Roger Carlson www.rogersaccesslibrary.com Reply to: Roger dot Carlson at Spectrum-Health dot Org "Albert D. Kallal" <PleaseNOOOsPAMMkallal@msn.com> wrote in message news:%23$gB3veaEHA.2632@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl... > Actually, VB is the same as VBA. > > The problem is that c and c++ don't have the concept of nulls. > > I am of the believe that databases do NOT need nulls, but the whole industry > jumped on this null thing about 15 years good (kind of adoption xml, or OOP > as the latest fad). In this case, the wide spread adoption of nulls really > did not help our industry that much. > > I state that wile you can quickly lean and gat a handle on the concept of > nulls in VB (or, in our case the VBA, but for all intensive purposes VB and > VBA are the same programming languages (they even share the same > compiler..so, they are the same!). > > However, failure to grasp the concepts and ramifications of nulls in your > database will result in some serious pain. (and, the issues of nulls applies > to all major commercial database products out there). > > I just recently participated a null database thread. The issue of nulls and > database is clearly one of those classic arguments that both camps can take > sides on. My pros, and cons on this subject can be read here: > > http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=156353&ixReplies=61 > > If you are new to nulls, I really do suggest you read the above "long" > thread... > > And, since you are from a c environment...then you likely will enjoy the > following article of mine: > > http://www.attcanada.net/%7ekallal.msn/Articles/WhyClass.html > > -- > Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP) > Edmonton, Alberta Canada > pleaseNOOSpamKallal@msn.com > http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn > >
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