[ISSUE-41 and ISSUE-42] What do people think of NULLs

Hi everybody

I quickly asked on twitter the following:

"If you have a NULL in your relational database, what would you expect to
see in RDF? Nothing? Create a triple with a bnode?"

Here are some answers to my quick poll:

just ignore it? Or is that too simplistic?
http://twitter.com/#!/gothwin/status/70537526074540032

I would expect to see nothing. OWA sufficiently covers the "unknown" aspect
of NULL
http://twitter.com/#!/ldodds/status/70551817926344704

null equates to no value for me, important in db land, but w/ open world
assumptions we have "don't know", so no triple imho
http://twitter.com/#!/webr3/status/70554640441294848

i vote for no statement.
http://twitter.com/#!/bhuga/status/70555667479535616

Aren't nulls mostly there due to the rigidity of RDBs? I'd say do nothing.
Add column to schema, omit all nulls.
http://twitter.com/#!/pablomendes/status/70565162964365312

I'd expect to see nothing; that is, the absence of a triple.
http://twitter.com/#!/bendiken/status/70565965724790784

Seems like an unofficial consensus is to completely ignore NULL values.


Juan Sequeda
+1-575-SEQ-UEDA
www.juansequeda.com