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Subject:RE: Blank vs. space (not null) from a database From:"Hickling, Lisa (TOR)" <lhickling -at- Express-Scripts -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Wed, 9 May 2007 14:41:17 -0400
The nitpicky nature of databases dictates that users should be made
aware of the difference between null and empty. Confusing the two might
have unexpected results for the user.
"Empty" or "contains a space" have similar meanings--initialized but
containing a zero length value. Null means uninitialized or containing
no value, not even a zero length value.
"Blank", however, is a wildcard which can mean anything you define it to
be: null or empty. So if you choose to use it be clear to your users in
your definition. (Sorry Lauren, what can I say, I'm tainted--I use
"empty" instead of "blank" since in programming-speak, "empty" has a
very specific meaning compared to the generic term "blank").
Lisa H.
GTA, Ontario
-----Original Message-----
From: Dori Green
Most users cannot tell if a field entry is "blank", "empty", or
"contains a space" -- and don't know that there's a difference between
"looks empty" and "is empty (contains no data, null)". Very few of them
care, and even fewer know that the differences might be important to the
program.
For whom are you documenting? User or programmer? Word accordingly.
If documenting for a programmer, a certain amount of programmer-speak
(i.e., "null") is probably acceptable.
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