NOTNULL in DICTIONARY

[mariopellegrini]

Good moring. I would like to understand what the "NOTNULL" variable in the dictionary.column means. I see that it is always evaluated as NO, without distinction both in the null case and in the case it is evaluated

data test1;
x=2;
run;
data test2;
x=.;
run;
proc sql;
   create table columns as
   select memname,libname,type,notnull, name from dictionary.columns
    where libname = "WORK" and memname like "TEST%";
quit;

[FreelanceReinh · Accepted solution]

Hello @mariopellegrini,

I think this variable is about integrity constraints: If an integrity constraint "NOT NULL" or "PRIMARY KEY" exists for the dataset variable in question, then NOTNULL='yes'.

Create such an integrity constraint:

proc datasets lib=work nolist;
modify test1;
ic create not null(x);
quit;

Now dictionary.columns shows:

memname    libname    type    notnull    name

 TEST1      WORK      num       yes       x
 TEST2      WORK      num       no        x