<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<title>Date data types and NULL or ZERO</title>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City" downloadurl="http://www.5iamas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
pre
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Fernando,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>If the date is maintained within a quick
screen or updated in a QTP prcoedure, it is probably a powerhouse null which is
not a good thing in Oracle </span></font><font size=2 color=navy
face=Wingdings><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;color:navy'>L</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>To get around this issue, we have used a
select statement based on the date having a very early date<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>e.g. select column, column, column from
table where date_processed < to_date
(’01-01-1900’,’DD-MM-YYYY’).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Assuming that you have no dates within
your database before 1900 this will retrieve records written by powerhouse
where a date has not been entered.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Regards,</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Dave</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Dave Browne</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Thyme-IT</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Office: +353 1 206 0010<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Mobile</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>:+353 87 236 3336<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><a href="mailto:E-Mail:dave@thyme-it.ie">E-Mail:daveb@thyme-it.ie</a></span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=3 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
powerh-l-bounces+daveb=thyme-it.ie@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-bounces+daveb=thyme-it.ie@lists.sowder.com] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>fernando.olmos@hpa.com.au<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> 05 October 2005 00:37<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> powerh-l@lists.sowder.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Date data types and NULL
or ZERO</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Hi
guys,</span></font> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>A
work colleague of mine is having problems with SQL cursors. She is using a
simple SELECT but with a WHERE clause saying DATE_PROCESSED is NULL. Her query
does not return anything.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The
database is Oracle. I was wondering how would one interrogate Oracle databases
using PH CURSORS, where you want to check a date column that is blank?</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>She
tried DATE_PROCESSED = 0 but the parser rejects this as an invalid logical
construct. We want to check for ZERO but it looks like we may need to convert
the 0 (CAST it) to a date type and not (I assume) a native INTEGER type. Of
course if she uses DATE_CONVERT IS NULL the parser accepts this, but we know
none of the rows have an actual NULL value.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>In
PL/SQL, we physically removed a date value from the column and then used QUIZ
to see if it stored the "empty" field as a NULL. We found out using a
"DEFINE a = 1 if DATE_PROCESSED is NULL else 0" came back 0 and not
1.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Cheers</span></font>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><i><font size=4 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:Arial;color:blue;font-style:italic'>Fernando Olmos</span></font></i>
<br>
<b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
font-weight:bold'>M.I.S.</span></font></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><b><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span lang=EN-AU style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;font-weight:bold'>HPA</span></font></b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'><br>
</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN-AU
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Direct: 03 9217
5411</span></font><br>
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
lang=EN-AU style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Mobile</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN-AU style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>: 0410 382 857</span></font><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'><br>
</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span lang=EN-AU
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Fax:
03 9217 5716</span></font><span lang=EN-AU> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="file:///H:\Appdata\Microsoft\Signatures\www.hpa.com.au"><b><font size=2
face=Arial><span lang=EN-AU style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
font-weight:bold'>www.hpa.com.au</span></font></b></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<pre><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>**********************************************************************<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>IMPORTANT<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>The contents of this e-mail and its attachments are confidential and intended<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>you received this e-mail in error, please notify the HPA Postmaster, postmaster@hpa.com.au,<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>then delete the e-mail.<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>This footnote also confirms that this e-mail message has been swept for the<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>presence of computer viruses by Ironport. Before opening or using any<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>attachments, check them for viruses and defects.<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>HPA collects personal information to provide and market our services. For more<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>information about use, disclosure and access see our Privacy Policy at<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>www.hpa.com.au<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre><pre><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>**********************************************************************<o:p></o:p></span></font></pre></div>
</body>
</html>