The World According to Nick |
My take on Software, Technology, Politics, and anything else I feel like talking about. |
Monday, April 19, 2004
Null as a Way of BeingI have this little issues at work from time to time. One of the members of my group is a hardcore database developer. In fact, he's on the board of PASS (Professional Assocation of SQL Server). He lives and breathes databases. I on the other hand live and breathe programming languages. Right now, I live and breathe C#/.NET. Before that, I lived and breathed C++. As it turns out, one of the major differences between the databases and languages is how you handle Null. Null is an interesting beast in the computer world. For my database programming afficianodos, Null is beautiful. You can pass around Null, and even operate on Null as if it were any other value. For us in the C# world, its a little different. You can check for Null (as you often should)... and in fact I often times use it as a special flag. But if you try to operate on Null... you are greated with an ugly little surprise... the Null Reference Exception. We often times have issues when the database returns Null. We beg and plead to please return something... anything else. Null can be a harbinger of doom. What does any of this have to do with life? Matt Warren has an interesting post on Being Null.
Maybe I should rethink my attitudes on Null.
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About Me
Name: Nick Home: Wauwatosa, WI, United States I'm a Software Consultant in the Milwaukee area. Among various geeky pursuits, I'm also an amateur triathlete, and enjoy rock climbing. I also like to think I'm a political pundit. View My Profile Archives
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