Re: Question about inserts

Maybe you can do something with this function:

[quote from the postgres docs]
9.12.2. COALESCE
COALESCE(value [, ...])
The COALESCE function returns the first of its arguments that is not null. Null is returned only if all arguments are
null.This is often useful to substitute a default value for null values when data is retrieved for display, for
example: 

SELECT COALESCE(description, short_description, '(none)') ...

Like a CASE expression, COALESCE will not evaluate arguments that are not needed to determine the result; that is,
argumentsto the right of the first non-null argument are not evaluated.  
[end quote]

Isn't it possible to pass "NULL" to the query in stead of ''?
eg. update table set datefield=NULL

Regards,

Stijn Vanroye

> Is it possible to to the following
>
> I have tables which are updated via webpage (perl) with fields of type
> int and date (all nullable). If the values are blank the entire insert
> fails, with a wrong type error.
>
> Is there any way to stop this behaviour so that the valid
> information is
> allowed,but the blank values get ignored.
>
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