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In SQL, null or NULL is a special marker used to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database. Introduced by the creator of the relational database model, E. F. Codd , SQL null serves to fulfill the requirement that all true relational database management systems ( RDBMS ) support a representation of "missing information and ...
Additionally, because SQL operators return Unknown when comparing anything with Null directly, SQL provides two Null-specific comparison predicates: IS NULL and IS NOT NULL test whether data is or is not Null. [8] SQL does not explicitly support universal quantification, and must work it out as a negated existential quantification.
In very early versions of the SQL standard the return code was called SQLCODE and used a different coding schema. The following table lists the standard-conforming values - based on SQL:2011 . [ 1 ] The table's last column shows the part of the standard that defines the row.
The PK is a not empty set of attributes (or columns). The same format applies to the foreign key (abbreviated FK) because each FK matches a preexistent PK. Each of attributes being part of a PK (or of a FK) must have data values (such as numbers, letters or typographic symbols) but not data marks (also known as NULL marks in SQL world).
A NOT NULL constraint is functionally equivalent to the following check constraint with an IS NOT NULL predicate: . CHECK (column IS NOT NULL) Some relational database management systems are able to optimize performance when the NOT NULL constraint syntax is used as opposed to the CHECK constraint syntax given above.
Any data column that may be NULL (empty) should never be used as a link in an inner join, unless the intended result is to eliminate the rows with the NULL value. If NULL join columns are to be deliberately removed from the result set , an inner join can be faster than an outer join because the table join and filtering is done in a single step.
The Null marker indicates the absence of a value, and is distinct from a value of 0 for an integer column or an empty string for a text column. The concept of Nulls enforces the 3-valued-logic in SQL , which is a concrete implementation of the general 3-valued logic .
The SQL:1999 standard introduced a BOOLEAN data type as an optional feature (T031). When restricted by a NOT NULL constraint, a SQL BOOLEAN behaves like Booleans in other languages, which can store only TRUE and FALSE values. However, if it is nullable, which is the default like all other SQL data types, it can have the special null value also.