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@KenW said:@BradC said:Doesn't seem too much like a WTF to me. We support CRM software, and have lots of clients that use this technique (blank/null implies US, anything else is explicitly stated).
Why?
1. When 99% of your customers are in the US, then it just makes sense.
2. You don't want an address label or automated mail-merge letter to your customer to say "USA", but you DO want it to specify another country if applicable. Sure, you could program the business logic into the template, but most of the included templates and reports for the products we support would have to be altered, which costs time and money.
Ok, so it makes queries a little wonky, especially if clients are inconsistent in applying this rule. But not usually that big of deal.You haven't provided any reasons that this isn't a WTF. You've just proven that you believe in the same WTF justification.Seriously, NULL means "unspecified". It doesn't mean "defaults to something". Set the database column to USA like you're supposed to, and use your programming "skillz" (not obvious that you have any, from the lack of knowledge indicated in your post) to suppress printing or display if you want. And it wouldn't cost time and money if you hadn't done it wrong to begin with; there wouldn't be any alteration required.Trying to justify WTF logic with more WTF logic is a WTF in itself. You should be ashamed of yourself, posting like this in a public place. The "products we support" bit implies that they're working with a system built by some other company. In this case, while it's indeed a bit of a WTF, it may not be enough of one to justify spending time on it. In contrast, the original post implies that they built the system themselves. They then compound the problem from "null/blank implies USA" to "null is the only way to indicate USA" to "we allow entering USA and then waste someone else's time manually changing it to null". Now [i]that[/i] is a WTF.