2015-05-01
1,798 reads
NULL
Database Design Follies: NULL vs. NOT NULL
It sounds simple enough. Either your column will always have a value or it may not. Yet somehow such a seemingly simple decision can become a never-ending debate where database schema begins to resemble superstition and designing effective tables seems more contentious than you expected it to be.
2016-02-26 (first published: 2014-10-30)
27,243 reads
2014-03-27
2,362 reads
2013-06-05
2,451 reads
2013-05-10
2,260 reads
2012-05-11
3,357 reads
Working with null values in SQL XML
We all know NULL values must be dealt with carefully in T-SQL, but how exactly do you best deal with them in SQL XML?
2010-10-26
27,515 reads
2010-06-17
3,956 reads
2010-04-07
4,053 reads
Accommodating Null Values in SQL Server
The key to working with null values properly is to accommodate them consistently. Learn a few tricks that will help you do just that.
2009-09-16
4,497 reads
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The Decoded Value
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Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers