[dba-SQLServer] ANSI null compliance

Susan Harkins ssharkins at bellsouth.net
Sat May 7 18:44:14 CDT 2005


Well, here's the problem in a nutshell -- the default isn't in compliance
with SQL-92, which is Okay. However, Query Analyzer IS -- which would tend
to lead one astray. Does anyone know if Enterprise Manager is too because
even though the Pubs default returns 0, in EM, if I create a new
table/column, it automatically checks Allow Nulls -- which is the opposite
of what you'd expect considering the inner non-compliance. But, my thinking
is -- if Query Analyzer is in compliance, perhaps EM is too. 

Or else I'm just terribly baffled by the entire exchange. 

Susan H. 

The Rules from the ANSI-92 standard:
<quote>
Every column has a nullability characteristic of known not nullable
         or possibly nullable, defined as follows:

         A column has a nullability characteristic that indicates whether
         any attempt to store a null value into that column will inevitably
         raise an exception, or whether any attempt to retrieve a value
         from that column can ever result in a null value. A column C with
         <column name> CN of a base table T has a nullability characteristic
that is known 




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