Re: Useful Oracle books - C.J. Date theory vs. practicality

-------- Original Message --------
jo_holvoet@xxxxxxxx wrote:

SAP doesn't use nulls. For char fields they typically use a single space, for dates (which they store in chars) they use '00000000', etc.etc.
And yes, it is every bit as ugly and horrendous as you describe ... I assume in their case it is partly a legacy issue and partly a database independence issue ? 

Legacy.  SAP was initially developed to run on flat ISAM files.
Which have no clue what a NULL is.  Their entire design has not
evolved one bit since then.

--
Cheers
Nuno Souto
in sunny Sydney, Australia
dbvision@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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