http://www.cycloneranger.com/2007/01/notes-on-simplicity.html "I see patterns" - Ernie Hacks Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:11:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.cycloneranger.com/2007/01/notes-on-simplicity.html/comment-page-1#comment-22 Justin Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-22 The idea of a 'null' result is actually borrowed from mathematics rather than being a programming concept. It's a part of set theory that states that every set has at least one subset, that being the null set (or the set containing nothing). Only the null set doesn't have any subsets. The idea of null usually shows up in databases or programmatic return values. Basically a program function could return nothing, or null. This often conflates with a return of false. However, since programming is essentially binary there is no real null, just a one and a zero. Often, for the sake of simplicity though, programming languages that aren't strictly typed treat zero, false, and null as the same. Null makes much more sense in terms of databases, where results are generally sets, and records can even contain subsets. When a set has no members, it is null (equivalent to the null set), or when a record has a null value for a specific column it contains a set of nothing. The difference between the two (programming vs. database) is that null in programming is zero, since nothing cannot be represented in binary, whereas null in databases is a record with no contents, but since databases are higher than binary this concept can be represented digitally. The idea of a ‘null’ result is actually borrowed from mathematics rather than being a programming concept. It’s a part of set theory that states that every set has at least one subset, that being the null set (or the set containing nothing). Only the null set doesn’t have any subsets. The idea of null usually shows up in databases or programmatic return values. Basically a program function could return nothing, or null. This often conflates with a return of false. However, since programming is essentially binary there is no real null, just a one and a zero. Often, for the sake of simplicity though, programming languages that aren’t strictly typed treat zero, false, and null as the same. Null makes much more sense in terms of databases, where results are generally sets, and records can even contain subsets. When a set has no members, it is null (equivalent to the null set), or when a record has a null value for a specific column it contains a set of nothing. The difference between the two (programming vs. database) is that null in programming is zero, since nothing cannot be represented in binary, whereas null in databases is a record with no contents, but since databases are higher than binary this concept can be represented digitally.

]]> http://www.cycloneranger.com/2007/01/notes-on-simplicity.html/comment-page-1#comment-24 chris Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-24 And that folks, is a UPenn Master's degree in the making! And that folks, is a UPenn Master’s degree in the making!

]]>