Null is a special marker used in Structured Query Language (SQL) to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database. Introduced by the creator of the relational database model, E. F. Codd, SQL Null serves to fulfill the requirement that all true relational database management systems (RDBMS) support a representation of "missing information and inapplicable information". Codd also introduced the use of the lowercase Greek omega (ω) symbol to represent Null in database theory. NULL
is also an SQL reserved keyword used to identify the Null special marker.
For people new to the subject, a good way to remember what null means is to remember that in terms of information, "lack of a value" is not the same thing as "a value of zero"; similarly, "lack of an answer" is not the same thing as "an answer of no". For example, consider the question "How many books does Juan own?" The answer may be "zero" (we know that he owns none) or "null" (we do not know how many he owns, or doesn't own). In a database table, the column reporting this answer would start out with no value (marked by Null), and it would not be updated with the value "zero" until we have ascertained that Juan owns no books.
Null may refer to:
NULL
, nil
, or None
), used in computer programming for an uninitialized, undefined, empty, or meaningless valueIn mathematics, the word null (from German: null meaning "zero", which is from Latin: nullus meaning "none") means of or related to having zero members in a set or a value of zero. Sometimes the symbol ∅ is used to distinguish "null" from 0. is sometimes called Aleph null.
In a normed vector space the null vector is the zero vector; in a seminormed vector space such as Minkowski space, null vectors are, in general, non-zero. In set theory, the null set is the set with zero elements; and in measure theory, a null set is a set with zero measure.
A null space of a mapping is the part of the domain that is mapped into the null element of the image (the inverse image of the null element).
In statistics, a null hypothesis is a proposition presumed true unless statistical evidence indicates otherwise.
Null is a Foetus EP released in 1995 by Big Cat in the UK. Null acts as a De facto single for "Verklemmt," released on Gash. Promotional copies of Null were distributed by Sony/Columbia in the US, but the EP had no official US release. Null was later rereleased as half of the Null/Void double-CDEP set.
All songs written and composed by J. G. Thirlwell.
SQL (i/ˈɛs kjuː ˈɛl/, or
i/ˈsiːkwəl/;Structured Query Language) is a special-purpose programming language designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS).
Originally based upon relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, SQL consists of a data definition language, data manipulation language, and a data control language. The scope of SQL includes data insert, query, update and delete, schema creation and modification, and data access control. Although SQL is often described as, and to a great extent is, a declarative language (4GL), it also includes procedural elements.
SQL was one of the first commercial languages for Edgar F. Codd's relational model, as described in his influential 1970 paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks." Despite not entirely adhering to the relational model as described by Codd, it became the most widely used database language.
SQL 2008 can refer to
SQL-92 was the third revision of the SQL database query language. Unlike SQL-89, it was a major revision of the standard. For all but a few minor incompatibilities, the SQL-89 standard is forward compatible with SQL-92.
The standard specification itself grew about five times compared to SQL-89. Much of it was due more precise specifications of existing features; the increase due to new features was only by a factor of 1.5–2. Many of the new features had already been implemented by vendors before the new standard was adopted. However, most of the new features were added to the "intermediate" and "full" tiers of the specification, meaning that conformance with SQL-92 entry level was scarcely any more demanding than conformance with SQL-89.
Later revisions of the standard include SQL:1999 (SQL3), SQL:2003, SQL:2008, and SQL:2011.
Significant new features include:
DATE
, TIME
, TIMESTAMP
, INTERVAL
, BIT
string, VARCHAR
strings, and NATIONAL CHARACTER
strings.