Re: behavior of ' = NULL' vs. MySQL vs. Standards

Stephan Szabo wrote:
>
> On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, Tom Lane wrote:
>
> > Stephan Szabo <sszabo(at)megazone23(dot)bigpanda(dot)com> writes:
> > > Yes, column = NULL should *never* return true according to the spec (it
> > > should always return NULL in fact as stated). The reason for breaking
> > > with the spec is AFAIK to work with broken microsoft clients that seem to
> > > think that =NULL is a meaningful test and generate queries using that.

> I'd rather have the default be the spec correct behavior
> and let people configure their server to follow the misinterpretation.

I like that idea as well. Someone like me who didn't know that this
feature was in there for M$ could have assumed it _was_ standard
behavior, and started using it as a habit. Then when I started porting
my code to another database, I'd have an extra surprise in for me. :)

Rather than being an option targeted at just this piece of grammer,
perhaps it could a piece of a potentially larger option of "stricter
standards compliance." I realize there are a number of useful extensions
to the SQL standard in Postgres (which I like and use.), but it seems
like there would be uses for minimizing non-standard behavior, as well.

Thank you all for your contributions to Postgres-- I use it everyday. :)

-mark

http://mark.stosberg.com/