I should add that I'm concious of legit data being confused for the sentinal values, but I recognise Hal Helms collection (via Nando) of pipe symbols, underscores and a backslash is pretty unique.
hmmm... perhaps I can get away with using some of the less common ASCII chars - ones not readily acesssable by users? On Feb 12, 7:23 am, "barry.b" <barry.beat...@gmail.com> wrote: > @Bob > > we need to know whether a notes/comment field has ever had anything > added since the record was first created (ie if it remains NULL). > Empty string could hide something being added and later removed. > Admittedly, the best alternative is a full blown audit trail but > that's a bit heavy handed compared to the importance (or not) of the > data being stored. > > @Nando > > very cute. certainly distinct enough. > > But I suppose the bottom line is I have no choice but to make up some > random string? > > On Feb 12, 1:05 am, Nando <d.na...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > What about using "|\||_||_|_" - a suggestion I picked up from Hal Helms > > > Nando > > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 3:07 PM, Bob Silverberg > > > <bob.silverb...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Interesting question. Interesting in that it made me realize that I > > > have never had a need to do this. I think that any time I am allowing > > > nulls in string fields the app doesn't really care whether they're > > > specifically nulls or not. So I just accept the default of "" and it > > > hasn't caused any problems for me. > > > > Just to satisfy my interest, can you give me an example of a use case > > > where it matters to your app whether the value is null or "". > > > > In terms of a value to use, it doesn't really matter what you use, as > > > long as you're using Transfer's null-support methods. That value, > > > "[[BOOHOOHOO]]" in your example, isn't ever going to get written to > > > the database. And if you want to check to see if a property is null, > > > you wouldn't check for "[[BOOHOOHOO]]", you'd just check > > > getXxxIsNull(). That's where the default value of "" comes in handy; > > > it allows you to do things like <cfoutput>myObj.getXxx()</cfoutput> > > > without having to check getXxxIsNull() first. I suppose that's why > > > I've always just kept the default. > > > > Cheers, > > > Bob > > > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 8:47 AM, barry.b <barry.beat...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> these are for sentinal values so I can maintain nulls > > > >> -1 for bool, Jan 1 100 for dates, etc. > > > >> but if "" is a valid value, suggestions on a suitable value to > > >> represent NULL for a string? > > > >> somehow "[[BOOHOOHOO]]" (or similar) doesn't quite rock my socks... > > > > -- > > > Bob Silverberg > > >www.silverwareconsulting.com > > > -- > > > Nando M. Breiter > > The CarbonZero Project > > CP 234 > > 6934 Bioggio > > Switzerland > > +41 76 303 4477 > > na...@carbonzero.ch --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Before posting questions to the group please read: http://groups.google.com/group/transfer-dev/web/how-to-ask-support-questions-on-transfer You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "transfer-dev" group. To post to this group, send email to transfer-dev@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to transfer-dev-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/transfer-dev?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
