SET NULL

Purpose

To determine NULL value support

Syntax

SET NULL ON | OFF

See Also

ALTER TABLE, COALESCE(), CREATE TABLE, EMPTY(), INSERT, ISBLANK(), ISNULL(), NVL(), SET NULLDISPLAY

Description

The SET NULL ON | OFF command is used to determine whether columns in a table support NULL values. With SET NULL ON, table columns will support NULL values by default. INSERT will insert a NULL into any column that does not have a value specified. With SET NULL off, NULL values are not supported by default. This default can be overridden by specifying the NULL or NOT NULL column constraint on an individual column.

Example

set null on
CREATE TABLE nullon (firstname c(20), lastname c(20))
INSERT INTO nullon (lastname) VALUES ("Smith")
? [SET NULL ON]
? [ISNULL() ], isnull(firstname)
? [EMPTY() ], empty(firstname)
wait
SET NULL ON
ISNULL()  .T.
EMPTY()  .F.
Press any key to continue...
 
set null off
CREATE TABLE nulloff (firstname c(20), lastname c(20))
INSERT INTO nulloff (lastname) VALUES ("Smith")
? [SET NULL OFF]
? [ISNULL() ], isnull(firstname)
? [EMPTY() ], empty(firstname)
wait
SET NULL OFF
ISNULL()  .F.
EMPTY()  .T.
Press any key to continue...
 
 
set null off
CREATE TABLE nulloff2 (firstname c(20) NULL, lastname c(20))
INSERT INTO nulloff2 (firstname,lastname) VALUES (NULL,"Smith")
? [SET NULL OFF, NULL Column Constraint]
? [ISNULL() ], isnull(firstname)
? [EMPTY() ], empty(firstname)
wait
SET NULL OFF, NULL Column Constraint
ISNULL()  .T.
EMPTY()  .F.
Press any key to continue...