>We are just trying to decide whether a record that lacks a foreign key should have the key listed as 0 or NULL. I think that 0 is easier to work with. For example, if we want to exclude records with a certain two foreign keys or no foreign key, we would say:
>
>SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE NOT INLIST(Foreign_Key, 13, 32, 0)
>
>as opposed to
>
>SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE NOT INLIST(Foreign_Key, 13, 32) AND Foreign_Key IS NOT NULL
>
>
>Jerry
Or a left join to the other table with a where clause. Are you really going to know the surrogate int key of the joined table anyway?
I'm with Sergey - for FKs null is the appropriate value.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
