Microsoft Access has a pretty handy boolean property that you can set for any "text" column in your tables:
AllowZeroLength
True means that empty strings ('') are allowed in the column, False means that they are not.
This is actually quite nice, because by using this along with the Required (i.e., disallow NULLS) property, you can ensure that your column has an actual, non-Null, non-Empty String value without the need for any additional constraints.
SQL Server does not have this property, but we can easily achieve the same effect by using a CHECK constraint:
create table foo
(
column1 varchar(100) not null check (column1 <>...
Let's say you are struggling on a programming project. Your code is growing exponentially and becoming more convoluted by the day, and it is clearly out of control. You're getting run-time errors, compile-time errors, wrong output, no output, endless loops, your machine is overheating, and perhaps you are starting to feel like you might be a little over your head. Maybe this is the first time you are using a particular programming tool or language, or it's the first time you've worked with a particular database, or maybe it's your first complicated project overall in any technology and you're getting...