From owner-pgsql-general@hub.org Fri Oct  9 18:22:09 1998
Received: from hub.org (majordom@hub.org [209.47.148.200])
	by candle.pha.pa.us (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id SAA04220
	for <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us>; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:22:08 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from localhost (majordom@localhost)
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id SAA26960;
	Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:18:29 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from owner-pgsql-general@hub.org)
Received: by hub.org (TLB v0.10a (1.23 tibbs 1997/01/09 00:29:32)); Fri, 09 Oct 1998 18:18:07 +0000 (EDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA26917
	for pgsql-general-outgoing; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:18:04 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org)
X-Authentication-Warning: hub.org: majordom set sender to owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org using -f
Received: from gecko.statsol.com (gecko.statsol.com [198.11.51.133])
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA26904
	for <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:17:46 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from statsol@statsol.com)
Received: from gecko (gecko [198.11.51.133])
	by gecko.statsol.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) with SMTP id SAA00557
	for <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>; Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:18:00 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 18:18:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Steve Doliov <statsol@statsol.com>
X-Sender: statsol@gecko
To: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Making NULLs visible.
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.981009181716.545B-100000@gecko>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org
Precedence: bulk
Status: RO

On Fri, 9 Oct 1998, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> [Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
> > > Yes, \ always outputs as \\, excepts someone changed it last week, and I
> > > am requesting a reversal.  Do you like the \N if it is unique?
> > 
> > Well, it's certainly clear, but could be confused with \n (newline). Can we
> > have \0 instead?
> 
> Yes, but it is uppercase.  \0 looks like an octal number to me, and I
> think we even output octals sometimes, don't we?
> 

my first suggestion may have been hare-brained, but why not just make the
specifics of the output user-configurable.  So if the user chooses \0, so
be it, if the user chooses \N so be it, if the user likes NULL so be it.
but the option would only have one value per database at any given point
in time.  so database x could use \N on tuesday and NULL on wednesday, but
database x could never have two references to the characters(s) used to
represent a null value.

steve




From owner-pgsql-general@hub.org Sun Oct 11 17:31:08 1998
Received: from renoir.op.net (root@renoir.op.net [209.152.193.4])
	by candle.pha.pa.us (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id RAA20043
	for <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us>; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 17:31:02 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from hub.org (majordom@hub.org [209.47.148.200]) by renoir.op.net (o1/$ Revision: 1.18 $) with ESMTP id RAA03069 for <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us>; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 17:10:34 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from localhost (majordom@localhost)
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA10856;
	Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:57:34 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from owner-pgsql-general@hub.org)
Received: by hub.org (TLB v0.10a (1.23 tibbs 1997/01/09 00:29:32)); Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:53:35 +0000 (EDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA10393
	for pgsql-general-outgoing; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:53:34 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org)
X-Authentication-Warning: hub.org: majordom set sender to owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org using -f
Received: from mail1.panix.com (mail1.panix.com [166.84.0.212])
	by hub.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA10378
	for <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:53:28 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from tomg@admin.nrnet.org)
Received: from mailhost.nrnet.org (root@mailhost.nrnet.org [166.84.192.39])
	by mail1.panix.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/PanixM1.3) with ESMTP id QAA16311
	for <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:53:24 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from admin.nrnet.org (uucp@localhost)
          by mailhost.nrnet.org (8.8.7/8.8.4) with UUCP
   id QAA16345 for pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:28:47 -0400
Received: from localhost (tomg@localhost)
	by admin.nrnet.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id QAA11569
	for <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>; Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:28:41 -0400
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:28:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Thomas Good <tomg@admin.nrnet.org>
To: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Making NULLs visible.
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.981009181716.545B-100000@gecko>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.981011161908.11556A-100000@admin.nrnet.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org
Precedence: bulk
Status: RO

Watching all this go by...as a guy who has to move alot of data
from legacy dbs to postgres, I've gotten used to \N being a null.

My vote, if I were allowed to cast one, would be to have one null 
and that would be the COPY command null.  I have no difficulty
distinguishing a null from a newline...

At the pgsql command prompt I would find seeing \N rather reassuring.
I've seen alot of these little guys.

    ---------- Sisters of Charity Medical Center ----------
                   Department of Psychiatry
                            ----     
    Thomas Good                          <tomg@q8.nrnet.org>
    Coordinator, North Richmond C.M.H.C. Information Systems
    75 Vanderbilt Ave, Quarters 8        Phone: 718-354-5528
    Staten Island, NY   10304            Fax:   718-354-5056



