# Reading back space as null string from db

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/reading-back-space-as-null-string-from-db/123712>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 19, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/reading-back-space-as-null-string-from-db/123712 "2007-12-19T23:08:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/reading-back-space-as-null-string-from-db/123712/1 "2007-12-19T23:08:39Z")

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Has anyone had the problem of reading back a space character, " ",  
when the value in the database is NULL? The column type is  
varchar(255) and I’m using SQL Server 2005 in production. I don’t  
have this problem in a MySQL development environment.

Thanks,  
Kevin