FreeTDS Development Group

[ZIGLIO Frediano <Frediano.Ziglio AT vodafoneomnitel.it>]

> 
> All,
> 
> I've done the following test, using latest snapshot freetds + sqsh 1.7
> (ct-library), TDSVER set to 70 accessing SQL 2000
> 
> 1> create table bill_null_test(col1 int not null, col2 int null, col3
> char(4) null)
> 2>
> 3> go
> 1> insert bill values ( 1, null, null)
> 2> go
> 1> select col1, col2, col3, '' isitnull from bill_null_test
> 2> go
>  col1        col2        col3 isitnull
>  ----------- ----------- ---- --------
>            1        NULL NULL
> 
> doesn't this prove that a null value prints as 'NULL' whereas 
> select ''
> prints as spaces ?
> 
> Bill
> 

??

Problem is difference from an empty string and NULL. In TDS 4.2 when you
issue a "SELECT ''" a single space is returned (' '). This cause a NULL
string is represented as a empty string. TDS7 remove this limit allowing
empty string (NULL is now a string of length -1, not 0).
I don't remember if this was fixed in 0.60 or later...

freddy77

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