NULL value

The NULL value specifies a value that is unknown or not applicable.

Syntax

NULL

Remarks

NULL is a special value that is different from any valid value for any data type. However, the NULL value is a legal value in any data type. NULL is used to represent missing or inapplicable information. There are two separate and distinct cases where NULL is used:

Situation	Description
missing	The field does have a value, but that value is unknown.
inapplicable	The field does not apply for this particular row.

SQL allows columns to be created with the NOT NULL restriction. This means that those particular columns cannot contain NULL.

The NULL value introduces the concept of three valued logic to SQL. The NULL value compared using any comparison operator with any value (including the NULL value) is "UNKNOWN." The only search condition that returns TRUE is the IS NULL predicate. In SQL, rows are selected only if the search condition in the WHERE clause evaluates to TRUE; rows that evaluate to UNKNOWN or FALSE are not selected.

Column space utilization for NULL values is 1 bit per column and space is allocated in multiples of 8 bits. The NULL bit usage is fixed based on the number of columns in the table that allow NULL values.

The IS [ NOT ] truth-value clause, where truth-value is one of TRUE, FALSE or UNKNOWN can be used to select rows where the NULL value is involved. For a description of this clause, see Search conditions.

In the following examples, the column Salary contains NULL.

Condition	Truth value	Selected?
Salary = NULL	UNKNOWN	NO
Salary <> NULL	UNKNOWN	NO
NOT (Salary = NULL)	UNKNOWN	NO
NOT (Salary <> NULL)	UNKNOWN	NO
Salary = 1000	UNKNOWN	NO
Salary IS NULL	TRUE	YES
Salary IS NOT NULL	FALSE	NO
Salary = expression IS UNKNOWN	TRUE	YES

The same rules apply when comparing columns from two different tables. Therefore, joining two tables together will not select rows where any of the columns compared contain the NULL value.

NULL also has an interesting property when used in numeric expressions. The result of any numeric expression involving the NULL value is NULL. This means that if NULL is added to a number, the result is NULL—not a number. If you want NULL to be treated as 0, you must use the ISNULL( expression, 0 ) function.

Many common errors in formulating SQL queries are caused by the behavior of NULL. You will have to be careful to avoid these problem areas. For a description of the effect of three-valued logic when combining search conditions, see Search conditions.

Set operators and DISTINCT clause

In set operations (UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT), and in the DISTINCT operation, NULL is treated differently from in search conditions. Rows that contain NULL and are otherwise identical are treated as identical for the purposes of these operations.

For example, if a column called redundant contained NULL for every row in a table T1, then the following statement would return a single row:

SELECT DISTINCT redundant FROM T1;

Permissions

Must be connected to the database.

Side effects

None.

Standards and compatibility

SQL/2003 Core feature.
Sybase In some contexts, Adaptive Server Enterprise treats NULL as a value, whereas SQL Anywhere does not. For example, rows of a column c1 that are NULL are not included in the results of a query with the following WHERE clause in SQL Anywhere, as the condition has a value of UNKNOWN:
WHERE NOT( C1 = NULL )
In Adaptive Server Enterprise, the condition is evaluated as TRUE, and these rows are returned. You should use IS NULL rather than a comparison operator for compatibility.

Unique indexes in SQL Anywhere can hold rows that hold NULL and are otherwise identical. Adaptive Server Enterprise does not permit such entries in unique indexes.

If you use jConnect, the tds_empty_string_is_null option controls whether empty strings are returned as NULL strings or as a string containing one blank character.

For more information, see tds_empty_string_is_null option [database].

Example

The following INSERT statement inserts a NULL into the date_returned column of the Borrowed_book table.

INSERT INTO Borrowed_book ( date_borrowed, date_returned, book )
VALUES ( CURRENT DATE, NULL, '1234' );

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