First recap (been doing RDBMS stuff for over 10 years so reckon this is
correct). Nulls and blank are NOT the same in RDBMS (in fact there are
actually several types of nulls). MySQL implements this correctly (Unlike
Oracle which treats null and blank the same). Up to now I am OK but when
it comes to codeing in PHP I am not to sure about best practice.
The app I am working on for number datatypes inserts 0 if no data is
entered in form. I can see why, I am inserting a blank into the database
and MySQL goes (Hang on this is a number fields and as you are not
inserting NULL you obviously mean zero). So I guess I need to do some
conditional stuff so the blanks are not actually inserted or put null into
the PHP variable and insert this (Can PHP vars be null but exist?). Or is
their another option?
The second half of the issue is getting data from the database. I added a
couple of columns to database but then I tried to retrieve them as
$row[index]. I got a variable x douse not exist error. This really through
me until I realised it was because the value in the database was null and
it kind of makes sense not to create the var for nulls (although it makes
coding a pig). So again, it seems I need to do a lot of isset() stuff
which is going to be a pain. Any other insight.
Nulls with varchar/char types are not so much of a problem as long as you
don't mind all fields in the database being blank rather than null after
you first insert data into them.
It would be good to get peoples advice on this.
And remember "0 as a number is as important as any other number".
Regards,
Ben
--
"If you criminals strong encryption ONLY the criminals will have it"
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