[Dbix-class] Re: '' != NULL for great sadness

[Ryan Cone]

On Jul 10, 2009, at 9:33 AM, fREW Schmidt wrote:
> I would agree except that fixture_id is not a join field.  Its just  
> a product of a legacy database that hasn't had all columns renamed  
> to something sensible.
>
> Here's another fun example: what do you think plane_747 means?  I'd  
> have guess a bool for type of plane.  It actually means how long is  
> the part.  So yeah, ignore col names from my real life  
> examples :-)   I'm renaming the cols when I get to them though (and  
> changing structures too) so it should get better.
>

Since fixture_id is an integer it most likely maps to some list, hash,  
text file or other data source.  If it is a very poorly named count,  
then 0 is a suitable default.  If it is supposed to be a measurement,  
then one integer field cannot accurately describe a measurement since  
measurements have units and are sometimes not integers (same goes for  
plane_747 unless it's a string I guess).

The question still remains whether a fixture mapping is inherent to a  
QCPart.  My guess is since it is legacy data, that it is not.  Which  
would also explain why you wanted NULLs and why some QCParts would not  
have Fixtures.