Is anyone using "DEFAULT DATE IS NULL" in a database statement?

[Stephen Hulbert]

Hi listers,
Ten years ago, when we moved over to an Oracle back end from CISAM, we made the decision to keep using zero for dates with no value.
This is fine if you only want to use Powerhouse to access the data, but anything else (including Oracle) complains loudly and at length about invalid dates.
Talking to Cognos, there's a "DEFAULT DATE IS NULL" option on the database statement which entirely transparently translates NULL dates in the database into zero value dates for consumption by Powerhouse.
Does it work? Does it work transparently?
Does anyone have experience of using it? I guess if you're using a SQL Server back end or an ODBC connection you have no choice.
More importantly, does anyone have any experience of turning this option on for a very mature database?
The upgrade path (make columns nullable, use QTP to set them to null, turn option on, recompile) would seem to be fairly simple, but are there any gotchas?
Many thanks in advance,
Stephen.


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Stephen Hulbert
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