"FizzBin" <idea_vortex@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:64748609.0309120738.22e23cea@posting.google.com...
> We are writing a C application that is using ODBC to insert records
> into a database. We have a NOT NULL column that can legitimately have
> an empty value, i.e. we know the value and it is empty (i.e. a zero
> length string).
>
> We are using SQLBindParameter() to bind a variable to the
> parameterized insert statement <<in the form: INSERT INTO table VALUES
> (?, ?, ?)>>. We are using SQLExecDirect() to process the SQL.
>
> We are running into the problem where ODBC is converts the empty (zero
> length) string into a NULL value and this errors due to the fact that
> the column is defined as NOT NULL.
>
> We do not want to redefine the column as NULL, becasue my
> understanding of the correct usage of a NULL column is to indicate
> that a value is unknown or meaningless... in our case we know the
> value (it is empty) and an empty value has meaning within our
> application.
>
> I'm sure that this issue has been seen and address thousands
> (millions?) of times... any guidance would be appreciated.

> We are writing a C application that is using ODBC to insert records
> into a database. We have a NOT NULL column that can legitimately have
> an empty value, i.e. we know the value and it is empty (i.e. a zero
> length string).
>
> We are using SQLBindParameter() to bind a variable to the
> parameterized insert statement <<in the form: INSERT INTO table VALUES
> (?, ?, ?)>>. We are using SQLExecDirect() to process the SQL.
>
> We are running into the problem where ODBC is converts the empty (zero
> length) string into a NULL value and this errors due to the fact that
> the column is defined as NOT NULL.
>...
>
> I'm sure that this issue has been seen and address thousands
> (millions?) of times... any guidance would be appreciated.