Need Oracle "isBlank" boolean test

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Post #127,146 by tablizer 11/21/03 6:08:27 PM Reply	Need Oracle "isBlank" boolean test I need a simple way to test to see if a field is all blanks. Something like Length(trim(x)) = 0 does not work. There are other goofy tricks to find it, but why is it so much ugly code? It should be simple. Am I missing a magic function? F Oracle for having null strings anyhow. Nulls have use for numbers, but not characters. Dumb. I hope Ellison's boat sinks. Arrrrrg! ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #127,149 by ChrisR 11/21/03 6:20:37 PM Reply	Blank Strings are null? At least I think that's the way that Oracle handles them. So you might be able to test IS NULL.
Post #127,154 by ben_tilly 11/21/03 6:27:40 PM Reply	Depends on what he means by a "blank string" My solution said that nulls are not blanks. If you are willing to accept them, then just: TRIM(x) IS NULL Cheers, Ben "good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not" - [link\|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html\|Stefano Mazzocchi]
Post #127,155 by ChrisR 11/21/03 6:32:28 PM Reply	Empty strings is what I meant. :-) Thanks.
Post #127,151 by ben_tilly 11/21/03 6:26:03 PM Reply	TRIM(NVL(x, 'NULL')) IS NULL Yes, it is wordy and ugly. But you come to expect that of SQL. And contrary to your assertion, nulls have a definite meaning and use in string data. I just wish that databases understood that empty strings also have their place. (In which case what you tried would have worked.) Cheers, Ben "good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not" - [link\|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html\|Stefano Mazzocchi]
Post #127,156 by ChrisR 11/21/03 6:42:52 PM Reply	Why the NVL? Just futzing around on Oracle 9i, and the following seems sufficient: TRIM(x) IS NULL
Post #127,159 by ben_tilly 11/21/03 6:56:55 PM Reply	What I thought that he wanted... was a test for when a string was just a row of spaces. In which case you DON'T want NULL to match, so we need to move NULLs to some string that won't be nulled by the TRIM. Cheers, Ben "good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not" - [link\|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html\|Stefano Mazzocchi]
Post #127,171 by ChrisR 11/21/03 7:45:30 PM Reply	understood. thanks.

Need Oracle "isBlank" boolean test - (tablizer) - (7) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:08:27 PM EST

Blank Strings are null? - (ChrisR) - (2) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:20:37 PM EST

Depends on what he means by a "blank string" - (ben_tilly) - (1) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:27:40 PM EST

Empty strings is what I meant. :-) - (ChrisR) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:32:28 PM EST

TRIM(NVL(x, 'NULL')) IS NULL - (ben_tilly) - (3) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:26:03 PM EST

Why the NVL? - (ChrisR) - (2) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:42:52 PM EST

What I thought that he wanted... - (ben_tilly) - (1) - Nov. 21, 2003, 06:56:55 PM EST

understood. thanks. -NT - (ChrisR) - Nov. 21, 2003, 07:45:30 PM EST

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