>>>In order to eliminate this issue I am thinking of always specifying/allowing NULL for every column of the empty cursor. Just in case. Will it slow down the processing of this cursor? The cursor usually is not very big, maybe up to 2000 records. What do you think?
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>Other than allowing for sloppy programming, there is no conceivable benefit in allowing NULL and there are huge negatives.

FWIW it wasn't me who posted that. IAC, I do see some value in nulls if you go back to the definition: the value is unknown. It is not the same thing as a value that evaluates to empty. Please don't take me the wrong way, I avoid them like the plague, but I wouldn't go as far as saying they have no conceivable benefit. You just have to be wery wery careful.