Re: NULL values and string

[Berend Tober <btober@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Huxton wrote:

> Sergey Karin wrote:
>
> > Are there any abilities to represent NULL values as string?
>
>
> Null isn't a real value. Try not to think of it as a value.
That being said, and with due credit elsewhere (http://www.varlena.com/varlena/GeneralBits/84.php), what I do is 


CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.textcat_null(text, text)
 RETURNS text AS
'SELECT textcat(COALESCE($1, ''''), COALESCE($2, ''''));'  
LANGUAGE sql' VOLATILE;



CREATE OPERATOR public.||+(
 PROCEDURE = "public.textcat_null",
 LEFTARG = text,
 RIGHTARG = text);

This goes against proper form, considering what NULL is designed for, but it sure is convenient.


Regards,
Berend Tober