Checking column for data

Sparks

I'm using the following:

SELECT * FROM tab_cars WHERE car_details >= 'a'

to check for data in a column. It works but only if the user has entered a character in the field, not if they enter a number.
I've also tried

WHERE car_details NOT NULL

but am getting a syntax error.
How can I check for "any data"?

LordShryku

You just need an "IS"
WHERE car_details IS NOT NULL

You can also you the ifnull() operator for mysql (nvl() for oracle) to assign a value to null fields.

Sparks

Thanks LordShryko,

I'm using

SELECT * FROM tab_cars WHERE car_details is not null

This is pulling back all of the entries. Athough the car_details column has no entries, it does show up as [BLOB (DblClk To View Data)] (0 bytes) in SQLyog. So does this mean that I've picked the wrong data type format for the car_details field? I've set it as a Text datatype. I have set it to allow null entries and when inserting information into the table I just use ,, so that the field is empty.

LordShryku

Use this:

SELECT * 
  FROM tab_cars 
 WHERE car_details IS NOT NULL
   AND car_details != ''

If it's saying that there's something there, even 0 bytes, that means it's not null. There's a difference between null and ''. When you insert, you should either skip the field all together, or insert it as null