> You are using "left blank" to mean "set to NULL", but many people > would describe a last name of "" (the empty string) as blank, and > using NOT NULL does nothing to prevent that.
Fair enough, but I see NOT NULL as just another way of preventing such errors. It's still the programmer's responsibility to validate user input. > I would recommend using NOT NULL for any column where you're not > specifically making use of NULL values. It saves complication as > well as a bit of space. But it's no substitute for validating the > data before inserting it into your table. Oh, wait... we're already in agreement. :p Edward Dudlik Becoming Digital www.becomingdigital.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith C. Ivey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 17 June, 2003 10:40 Subject: Re: NOT NULL ? On 16 Jun 2003 at 19:29, Becoming Digital wrote: > Think of the many cases in which you would not want a field left > blank: a customer's last name or zip code, a product's name or id > number, a payment amount. Were any of those fields allowed to be > NULL, the system of which they are a part could fall on its face. We > wouldn't want that, would we? You are using "left blank" to mean "set to NULL", but many people would describe a last name of "" (the empty string) as blank, and using NOT NULL does nothing to prevent that. Also, if a zip code were allowed to be 'ABCDE', the system would fall on its face just as much, and NOT NULL does nothing there either. I would recommend using NOT NULL for any column where you're not specifically making use of NULL values. It saves complication as well as a bit of space. But it's no substitute for validating the data before inserting it into your table. -- Keith C. Ivey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tobacco Documents Online http://tobaccodocuments.org -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
