On Fri, 2 Feb 2007, Aaron Logue wrote: > The following bug has been logged online: > > Bug reference: 2961 > Logged by: Aaron Logue > Email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > PostgreSQL version: 8.2.1 > Operating system: Linux (various flavors) > Description: NULL values in subselects force NOT IN to false > Details: > > SELECT X FROM (SELECT 42 AS X) AS FOO WHERE X NOT IN (7,NULL); > > returns 0 rows. Shouldn't "X NOT IN (7,NULL)" be > true if X is neither 7 nor NULL? Removing the NULL causes the row to be > returned.
NOT IN with NULLs is defined by spec in a way that most people do not expect if they aren't thinking about three valued logic. x NOT IN RVC is effectively NOT(x = ANY RVC). x = ANY RVC is defined to be true if x = RVCi is true for some RVCi in RVC. x = ANY RVC is defined to be false if x = RVCi is false for all RVCi in RVC. x = ANY RVC is defined to be unknown otherwise. x = NULL is defined as unknown, so what you end up with is x = 7, false x = NULL, unknown so, x IN (7, NULL), unknown so, NOT (x IN (7, NULL)), unknown. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly