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, arguments to 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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