> Does PostgreSQL suffer from this oddity as well? This distinction > between an empty string and a NULL? Could you also please give me an > example of where this would be useful from a business logic > standpoint? Why should a NULL be different from an empty string, > what's the big mysterious difference? Nulls are also useful for data that is imported where there is not always a way to determine certain field values for a record. Now suppose in a query you want to return all record that meet your criteria as well as any that might meet your criteria depending if the null value was actually known. Select * from table Where ((field1,field2,field3) = ('farmer','baker','shoemaker')) is unknown; Now you can get all records that may meet your criteria. Regards, Richard Broersma Jr.