Multipage tiff example for download – test image file

Irfanview LogoRecently I was coding some functionality that was dealing with multipage tiff images. Since I hadn’t any multipage pictures on my computer, I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some sample files to test with.

So I started my everday search in google: Multipage tiff example, multipage tiff file sample, multipage tif download etc. Nothing. Mostly results about programs that can handle multipage tiffs. Yay! Also google image search left me out in the rain :(. Screenshots of programs that can handle multipage tiffs. Yay, again! Continue reading …

Oracle still treats empty string as null

It is really a joke that Oracle still treats empty (zero length) strings as null, even in the year 2012! Recently I came (again) across this fact when we were adding support for Oracle 11g in our application.

I was shocked that this is still an issue. Although they may had their reasons in the past, this is really annoying nowadays. I can’t understand why they didn’t make a cut a some point, made the default SQL92 compliant and added an option for the legacy systems. If you don’t know what I’m talking about:

When you have an Entity that has a String attribute, put an empty String (“”) into it and persist it. When you read it back this String attribute is now null instead of “”! This leads to unfunny side-effects especially when you’re already supporting other databases like MySQL, MSSQL or PostgreSQL where this isn’t an issue. Be prepared to re-check queries, required attributes and JSF pages.

How are you handling the situation? Is there a new option I’m probably not aware of?