Re: what is good solution for support NULL inside string_to_array function?

Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>

From: Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>, Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2010-05-07T17:53:10Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Tom Lane wrote:
> Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
>   
>>> quietly removing NULL is maybe good for compatibility but is wrong for
>>> functionality. 
>>>       
>
>   
>> I agree.  I wasn't aware of this little misfeature.
>>     
>
>   
>> Default display for NULL should be a zero-length string.
>>     
>
> That's just as broken as Pavel's suggestion.  Unless you have something
> that is guaranteed distingishable from the output of any non-null value,
> you really can't make a significant improvement here.
>
> 			regards, tom lane
>
>   
Is this, perhaps, a generalized case of this long-running discussion 
from last year?: 
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2009-03/msg01350.php

Cheers,
Steve