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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report
Stupid NULLs
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count() (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Regrettably, this is something that much documentation [mysql.com] does not make clear. I'm expecting count() to return the number of instances of a particular value. Given that NULL can be thought of as "unknown", I suppose one could argue that it makes sense that it doesn't count the number of values. However, it also seems reasonable for one to assume that count(some_field) will return how many unknown values there are.
Your explanation is perfectly correct. I'm just frustrated that an arguably "intuitive" answe
Re:count() (Score:1)
That's because your "intuitive" answer isn't the "intuitive" answer of one someone who breathes SQL. Just like what you find "intuitive" in Perl isn't "intuitive" for many people who also use Perl.
I do find the answer "intuitive", but only because I keep myself reminding that a NULL in a relational database is a very special thing, and far more undefined than 'undef' is in Perl. If you try to think of a database 'NULL' as an 'undef' in Perl, or a NULL pointer in C, things rapidly come "unintuitive".
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