From: Pit Capitain <pit@...>
Date: 2005-02-23T00:30:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Proposal for nil, 0, and "" in an if statement

Gavin Kistner schrieb:
> I don't have actual code, but imagine looping through records returned 
> with financial data, and you want to print out a "-" if the field is 
> missing -or- zero. The whole "this field doesn't have any meaningful 
> information that contributes to the sum of the column" spreadsheet thing.
> 
> I would support an RCR with this proposal, under just about any method 
> name :)
> And I agree, boolean types need the same method as well.

When dealing with financial data, you often have to calculate the product of a 
couple of values:  v1 * v2 * v3 * ... Here, the number, that "doesn't have any 
meaningful information that contributes to the PRODUCT of the column", is 1. I 
think you can find many examples where the number 0 is special, but you can also 
find examples where another number is special.

Regards,
Pit