"all our customers are on the webserver" "how do you know if people on there are paid up or not" "we don't"

creates `table customers (id,is_freeloader int(1), customer_name text); web_hosting(domain_name text, custoemr_id)`

why is_freeloaders isn't a boolean

hrm kit

mysql digit constraints

pesky SQLs

sql: the only language where boolean has 3 valid values. 0, 1, null.

I once broke a stored procedure because I used IF column <> "foo"

but column <> "foo" is false if column is NULL

notes that neighter `null > 1` nor `null < 1`

of course good database design suggests avoiding nullable columns like the plague

suggests that there are some times when you just don't know the answer

notes that his case is extracting information from html, and then sticking into a row... but there is not enough info full the whole row

paws at sparse data structures

shakes the pesky html until the information falls out

points out that boolean in SQL is usually int(1) anyway.

paste.plurk.com/show/297...

paste.plurk.com/show/297...

confused by langauges that care about types

hindley-milner type inference

c and sql do types poorly in comparison