Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Someone is filling out the form. They skip MI. Do I mark it as null or blank? The only way to trust this is to have a big check mark that say “does not have a middle initial” that stores a boolean. But realistically, who cares? Unless you’re dealing with legal names, you don’t need to distinguish the cases.



OK, but why does that require the database to have non-nullable string types?


No reason per se, but it’s inconvenient and I’ve seen tons of bugs from “NoneType has no method ‘uppercase()’” that this eliminates.


Sorry, I can't get behind changing the database design to accommodate under-specified data contracts and/or lazy software development.


I can't get behind letting theoretical database design concerns trump real world problems with unexpected nulls leading to 500s in production. :-)




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: