In SQL, NULL means that data does not exist. NULL does not equal to 0 or an empt y string.

Both 0 and empty string represent a value, while NULL has no value. Any mathematical operations performed on NULL will result in NULL. For example, 10 + NULL = NULL Aggregate functions such as SUM, COUNT, AVG, MAX, and MIN exclude NULL values. T his is not likely to cause any issues for SUM, MAX, and MIN. However, this can l ead to confusion with AVG and COUNT. Let's take a look at the following example: Table store_name Store A Store B Store C Store D Sales_Data Sales 300 200 100 NULL

Below are the results for each aggregate function: SUM (Sales) = 600 AVG (Sales) = 200 MAX (Sales) = 300 MIN (Sales) = 100 COUNT (Sales) = 3 Note that the AVG function counts only 3 rows (the NULL row is excluded), so the average is 600 / 3 = 200, not 600 / 4 = 150. The COUNT function also ignores th e NULL rolw, which is why COUNT (Sales) = 3. Read more: http://www.1keydata.com/sql/sql-null.html#ixzz2KGtMowd2