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  4. Does NULL <> 'string'?

Does NULL <> 'string'?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
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  • C Chris Maunder

    Au contraire. It's the perfect language. Job security forever.

    cheers Chris Maunder

    E Offline
    E Offline
    Erick Mattew
    wrote on last edited by
    #14

    Quote:

    Job security forever

    Indeed. Writing script, backup,... It's boring but secure.

    J 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • E Erick Mattew

      Quote:

      Job security forever

      Indeed. Writing script, backup,... It's boring but secure.

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jeremy Falcon
      wrote on last edited by
      #15

      So is prostitution... but ya know... :~

      Jeremy Falcon

      J J 2 Replies Last reply
      0
      • J Jeremy Falcon

        I think this version reads cleaner (and without the quirks), but I'd be willing to bet the non-sub select version would run quicker.

        Jeremy Falcon

        J Offline
        J Offline
        Jorgen Andersson
        wrote on last edited by
        #16

        Assuming SQL Server, I'll take that bet. NOT IN vs. NOT EXISTS vs. LEFT JOIN / IS NULL: SQL Server at EXPLAIN EXTENDED[^] Left outer join vs NOT EXISTS | SQL in the Wild[^] There are always exceptions, but not exists is generally better optimized.

        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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        • C Chris Maunder

          Null most certainly does not equal a valid string value, right? I never realised SQL could be so Javaesque ;)

          cheers Chris Maunder

          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriff
          wrote on last edited by
          #17

          It gets Dali-esque as well from time to time...

          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
          "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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          • J Jeremy Falcon

            So is prostitution... but ya know... :~

            Jeremy Falcon

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Jorgen Andersson
            wrote on last edited by
            #18

            Boring?

            Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

            J T 2 Replies Last reply
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            • J Jorgen Andersson

              Boring?

              Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

              J Offline
              J Offline
              Jeremy Falcon
              wrote on last edited by
              #19

              Some are... so I'm told. :rolleyes:

              Jeremy Falcon

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • J Jorgen Andersson

                Boring?

                Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                T Offline
                T Offline
                TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
                wrote on last edited by
                #20

                They don't all "enjoy" it. It's a job. Indeed, prostitutes go same-sex for their personal one-on-ones because opposite-sex has lost all appeal due to the "job".

                #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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                • J Jeremy Falcon

                  So is prostitution... but ya know... :~

                  Jeremy Falcon

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  Jagger B
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #21

                  Sorry, You failed the interview. He'll call you next time. :|

                  J 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • J Jagger B

                    Sorry, You failed the interview. He'll call you next time. :|

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    Jeremy Falcon
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #22

                    So wait, you're saying I can't be a prostitute? Why? Because I'm a guy? That's discrimination.

                    Jeremy Falcon

                    J 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • J Jeremy Falcon

                      So wait, you're saying I can't be a prostitute? Why? Because I'm a guy? That's discrimination.

                      Jeremy Falcon

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      Jagger B
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #23

                      Are you saying, Sql Dev's = prostitute?

                      J 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • J Jagger B

                        Are you saying, Sql Dev's = prostitute?

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        Jeremy Falcon
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #24

                        Yes. Everyone knows you have go through prostitute training to get certified. You just finding this out? You may wanna talk to your MS rep.

                        Jeremy Falcon

                        N 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                          It gets Dali-esque as well from time to time...

                          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                          N Offline
                          N Offline
                          Nelek
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #25

                          OriginalGriff wrote:

                          Dali-esque

                          Surrealistic? or womenizer? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

                          M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

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                          • J Jeremy Falcon

                            Yes. Everyone knows you have go through prostitute training to get certified. You just finding this out? You may wanna talk to your MS rep.

                            Jeremy Falcon

                            N Offline
                            N Offline
                            Nelek
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #26

                            Guys... this is not the soapbox

                            M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

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                            • C Chris Maunder

                              You'd think so. Except in SQL We had a query:

                              Select count(*)
                              From TableOne

                              which returned, say, 500,000 records. Next we added

                              Select count(*)
                              From TableOne
                              Left Join TableTwo On TableTwo.TableTwoID = TableOne.TableTwoID
                              Where TableTwo.TableTwoID is null or TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                              We're trying to find the number of records in TableOne which, when joined with TableTwo, either have no corresponding TableTwo row or the corresponding TableTwo row is not 'value'. TableTwo.StringColumn is nullable. The result? Adding the join resulted in 25K records. It should have been over 490K records. The issue?

                              TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                              This comparison returns false if TableTwo.StringColumn is null. So one needs to use

                              IsNull(TableTwo.StringColumn, '') <> 'value'

                              to get the correct result.

                              cheers Chris Maunder

                              T Offline
                              T Offline
                              txmrm
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #27

                              Like everything else in programming, it depends. In this case it depends on the SQL ansi_nulls setting. If this is a statement inside a SQL stored procedure, view, etc the ansi_nulls setting is burned into the object when it is created. If this is an ad-hoc statement then the ansi_nulls setting in effect for the SQL connection the statement is executed against is used. If you want null <> 'value' to return true, you could just set ansi_nulls off. Not that I would recommend doing that...

                              Richard DeemingR 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • T txmrm

                                Like everything else in programming, it depends. In this case it depends on the SQL ansi_nulls setting. If this is a statement inside a SQL stored procedure, view, etc the ansi_nulls setting is burned into the object when it is created. If this is an ad-hoc statement then the ansi_nulls setting in effect for the SQL connection the statement is executed against is used. If you want null <> 'value' to return true, you could just set ansi_nulls off. Not that I would recommend doing that...

                                Richard DeemingR Offline
                                Richard DeemingR Offline
                                Richard Deeming
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #28

                                txmrm wrote:

                                Not that I would recommend doing that...

                                Especially as it's deprecated, and likely to be removed:

                                SET ANSI_NULLS (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs[^]:

                                In a future version of SQL Server, ANSI_NULLS will always be ON and any applications that explicitly set the option to OFF will generate an error. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.


                                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • C Chris Maunder

                                  You'd think so. Except in SQL We had a query:

                                  Select count(*)
                                  From TableOne

                                  which returned, say, 500,000 records. Next we added

                                  Select count(*)
                                  From TableOne
                                  Left Join TableTwo On TableTwo.TableTwoID = TableOne.TableTwoID
                                  Where TableTwo.TableTwoID is null or TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                  We're trying to find the number of records in TableOne which, when joined with TableTwo, either have no corresponding TableTwo row or the corresponding TableTwo row is not 'value'. TableTwo.StringColumn is nullable. The result? Adding the join resulted in 25K records. It should have been over 490K records. The issue?

                                  TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                  This comparison returns false if TableTwo.StringColumn is null. So one needs to use

                                  IsNull(TableTwo.StringColumn, '') <> 'value'

                                  to get the correct result.

                                  cheers Chris Maunder

                                  Kornfeld Eliyahu PeterK Offline
                                  Kornfeld Eliyahu PeterK Offline
                                  Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #29

                                  It may be weird, but it's nothing new... I learned SQL on mainframe, and the first thing we had to memorize about NULL is that it can not stand of either side of any of the comparison operators (=, <, >, <>)...

                                  Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.

                                  "It never ceases to amaze me that a spacecraft launched in 1977 can be fixed remotely from Earth." ― Brian Cox

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C Chris Maunder

                                    You'd think so. Except in SQL We had a query:

                                    Select count(*)
                                    From TableOne

                                    which returned, say, 500,000 records. Next we added

                                    Select count(*)
                                    From TableOne
                                    Left Join TableTwo On TableTwo.TableTwoID = TableOne.TableTwoID
                                    Where TableTwo.TableTwoID is null or TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                    We're trying to find the number of records in TableOne which, when joined with TableTwo, either have no corresponding TableTwo row or the corresponding TableTwo row is not 'value'. TableTwo.StringColumn is nullable. The result? Adding the join resulted in 25K records. It should have been over 490K records. The issue?

                                    TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                    This comparison returns false if TableTwo.StringColumn is null. So one needs to use

                                    IsNull(TableTwo.StringColumn, '') <> 'value'

                                    to get the correct result.

                                    cheers Chris Maunder

                                    O Offline
                                    O Offline
                                    obermd
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #30

                                    The SQL standards don't define how NULL should behave. What you found is accurate for one SQL dialect but may not be accurate for another. This is actually one of the biggest challenges when changing RDBMS vendors.

                                    Richard DeemingR 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • C Chris Maunder

                                      You'd think so. Except in SQL We had a query:

                                      Select count(*)
                                      From TableOne

                                      which returned, say, 500,000 records. Next we added

                                      Select count(*)
                                      From TableOne
                                      Left Join TableTwo On TableTwo.TableTwoID = TableOne.TableTwoID
                                      Where TableTwo.TableTwoID is null or TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                      We're trying to find the number of records in TableOne which, when joined with TableTwo, either have no corresponding TableTwo row or the corresponding TableTwo row is not 'value'. TableTwo.StringColumn is nullable. The result? Adding the join resulted in 25K records. It should have been over 490K records. The issue?

                                      TableTwo.StringColumn <> 'value'

                                      This comparison returns false if TableTwo.StringColumn is null. So one needs to use

                                      IsNull(TableTwo.StringColumn, '') <> 'value'

                                      to get the correct result.

                                      cheers Chris Maunder

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      agolddog
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #31

                                      Total guess here, but I wonder if the SQL engine errors on the side of caution. Something like: "I don't have a string to compare to. Thus, I can't say with certainty it is or is not 'value', so I'll return false." But yeah, I think that has gotten us all at one time or another when doing inequality in a query. I also wonder if it varies with different implementations of SQL. But not enough to, you know, test it or anything.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • L Lost User

                                        Yes, and it is pretty correct. NULL is not defined and can therefore not be compared to a value. Also not for nuallable type in c#.

                                        M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        Member_5893260
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #32

                                        ...except there's an "or" in there: logically, it shouldn't matter: if it's null, at least one of the conditions is true. I have a feeling that "null=string" evaluates to null, and then "field is null" evaluates to Boolean, then "boolean or null" evaluates to null, which is why it doesn't work. But that's somewhat abstruse. Which server is this: is it SQL Server or MySQL... or perhaps something else?

                                        L Richard DeemingR 2 Replies Last reply
                                        0
                                        • M Member_5893260

                                          ...except there's an "or" in there: logically, it shouldn't matter: if it's null, at least one of the conditions is true. I have a feeling that "null=string" evaluates to null, and then "field is null" evaluates to Boolean, then "boolean or null" evaluates to null, which is why it doesn't work. But that's somewhat abstruse. Which server is this: is it SQL Server or MySQL... or perhaps something else?

                                          L Offline
                                          L Offline
                                          Lost User
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #33

                                          But the IS NULL check is made on TableTwo.TableTwoID While string compare is made with TableTwo.StringColumn So I see no incorrect handling, but of course it is not very intuitiv.

                                          M 1 Reply Last reply
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