Answered Why check for ? on a char field

[Venkateswarlu N]

Is there any real reason why we have to do this

for each customer where city <> "" and city <> ? no-lock:

And why is there no data type compatibility error when checking character field against ?.

Thanks,
Venky

 

[RealHeavyDude]

1. ? means the value is not defined. Depending on your use case that can have a different meaning to your business logic as an empty string where the value is defined.
2. The value of any data type can be undefined unless you explicitely have a validation in place ( for example defining it as mandatory ). Therefore you can assign ? to anything.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[GregTomkins]

I think you can just say > "", rather than the AND, but I don't have Progress in front of me right now to double check.

We have arguments sometimes over whether every field should be tagged mandatory in the schema. In principle I think the answer is Yes, but in reality, we don't do this and it's another thing that seems sloppy but virtually never causes actual problems for us.

 

[Cringer]

Just linking the Communities thread you created to close the loop as there are some good points there.
https://community.progress.com/community_groups/openedge_development/f/19/t/18446.aspx