To Null, or Not to Null

[ButtonMoon]

button, I think you are creating a problem where none exists - or maybe more correctly one where we are aware of the problem, and are used to handling it.

I'm very glad if you do understand that empty set and NULL are different things. If you simply choose to use them in similar ways then I have nothing much to say about that. Analogously, you might choose to interpret 1s as meaning the same as 0s, or TRUEs as meaning the same as FALSE, and then deal with all the anomalies that might arise from such unlikely assumptions. That's not my problem. What I was attempting to correct was Doc Man's apparent belief (or at least the impression given in his post from 2007) that empty set and NULL are implicitly the same thing, not merely that he or you or anyone else might choose to treat them as if they are.

 

[WaiveIt]

Wow! Good stuff ppl.

Thanks for all the insight; some is over my head, but all is helpful.

While it seems as though the acceptance of Nulls is being debated more than avoiding them I've made some changes to my latest project that will remove the presence of such and be better prepared to deal with them when avoiding them is not practical.

What an amazing resource of big brains we have here!