For most applications, an SQL null means that the value of interest is not known. The only exceptions to this occur when nulls are used to represent the empty set. SQL does not support the empty set.
Types of Missing Values
The following list touches on most of the common uses of SQL nulls:
- Value is unknown
- Value is not applicable
- Value does not exist
- Value is not defined
- Value is not valid
- Value is not supplied
- Value is the empty set
The semantics, properties, and behavior of each of these null types are different, but SQL treats them identically, including all 14 of the ANSI/X3/SPARC “null manifestations” and their 8 submanifestations.