On 6/6/21 7:49 PM, Dean Gibson (DB Administrator) wrote: > On 2021-05-29 13:35, Andrew Dunstan wrote: >> On 5/29/21 3:59 PM, Dean Gibson (DB Administrator) wrote: >>> Meanwhile, I've been doing some checking. If I remove "CAST( >>> license_status AS CHAR ) = 'A'", the problem disappears. Changing the >>> JOIN to a RIGHT JOIN, & replacing WHERE with ON, also "solves" the >>> problem, but there is an extra row where license_status is NULL, due >>> to the RIGHT JOIN. Currently trying to figure that out (why did the >>> CAST ... match 'A', if it is null?)... >> Why are you using this expression? It's something you almost never want >> to do in my experience. Why not use the substr() function to get the >> first character? >> > > Although it doesn't matter in this case, I do it because in general, > it changes the type of the value from CHAR to bptext or whatever it > is, & that has causes comparison issues in the past. It's just a > matter of habit for me when working with CHAR() types. > > But this case, where it doesn't matter, I'd use LEFT(). That raises the issue of why you're using CHAR(n) fields. Just about every consultant I know advises simply avoiding them. :-) cheers andrew -- Andrew Dunstan EDB: https://www.enterprisedb.com
