Martijn Tonies wrote:

>Hi John,
>
>
>
>>I think the designers of the SQL Spec picked a bad name in 'NULL'.
>>Just looked it up in the dictionary:
>>
>>"Amounting to nothing : NIL
>>3 : having no value : INSIGNIFICANT
>>4 a : having no elements <null set> b : having zero as a limit <null
>>sequence> c of a matrix : having all elements equal to zero
>>5 a : indicating usually by a zero reading on a scale when a given
>>quantity (as current or voltage) is zero or when two quantities are
>>equal -- used of an instrument b : being or relating to a method of
>>measurement in which an unknown quantity (as of electric current) is
>>compared with a known quantity of the same kind and found equal by a
>>null detector
>>6 : of, being, or relating to zero
>>7 : ZERO 1c "
>>
>>This confuses loads of SQL novices I know - especially when they're
>>programmers too, ('null pointers' etc, and in C# difference
>>between 'null' and 'DBNull.Value'!). Personally I always prefer to
>>say "if (x is DBNull)", more like sql syntax.
>>
>>SQL should have chosen UNKNOWN as the name of the state, in my
>>opinion.
>>
>>However, I agree that Firebird is totally correct in it's handling of
>>null strings!
>>
>>
>
>And add to the confusion that in Dutch, the word for zero (0)
>is pronounced as "null" (but written like "nul"). :-)
>
>

Well, in French, FWIW (probably not much), zero is said zéro, but if you
say a field is "nul" (pronounced with a french 'u', like the german
'ü'), it means that it has value 0...

Anyway, perhaps that's enough linguistics!!

Jonathan Neve.


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