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Zero is a concept that comes to numerical systems late in life, when people realize that to do anything complex you have to be able to note the absence of value. Zero came to Europe, by way of the Arabic world, courtesy of Italian mathematical god Fibonacci. The Arabs actually took it from the Hindus, after which it gets fuzzy. Anyway, Zero turned out to be a pretty good idea.
Fast forward a couple of millennia or so and, for computers anyway, it's time for a new zero. Borrowed from set theory, we have Null. In math, zero is a value, it has numerical meaning. In some logical applications it's necessary to show that there is no value at all, not even a zero. And so, Null, nullus, none.
Why is this important? Because every modern database uses the null concept. In short, the data that drives the modern information age has, hidden in the bowels a database engine, a void. This null allows for three value logic and is applied in numerous ways to make searching data more elegant and efficient.
Microsoft SQL Server does not understand Null. It does not understand that an absence of value cannot be equivalent to some other absence of value, logically. Once again, Microsoft's retarded logic has hit me in the face. That is all.
Fast forward a couple of millennia or so and, for computers anyway, it's time for a new zero. Borrowed from set theory, we have Null. In math, zero is a value, it has numerical meaning. In some logical applications it's necessary to show that there is no value at all, not even a zero. And so, Null, nullus, none.
Why is this important? Because every modern database uses the null concept. In short, the data that drives the modern information age has, hidden in the bowels a database engine, a void. This null allows for three value logic and is applied in numerous ways to make searching data more elegant and efficient.
Microsoft SQL Server does not understand Null. It does not understand that an absence of value cannot be equivalent to some other absence of value, logically. Once again, Microsoft's retarded logic has hit me in the face. That is all.