How it is possible to insert a zero or an empty string into a MySQL column which is defined as NOT NULL?

Declaring a column ‘NOT NULL’ means that this column would not accept NULL values but zero (0) and an empty string is itself a value. Hence there would be no issue if we want to insert zero or an empty string into a MySQL column which is defined as NOT NULL. Following comparisons of 0 and empty string with NULL would make it clear −

mysql> Select 0 IS NULL, 0 IS NOT NULL;
+-----------+---------------+
| 0 IS NULL | 0 IS NOT NULL |
+-----------+---------------+
|         0 |             1 |
+-----------+---------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The above result set shows that zero (0) is not NULL. It means zero (0) is a value itself because as we know that NULL means NO VALUE.

mysql> Select '' IS NULL, '' IS NOT NULL;
+------------+----------------+
| '' IS NULL | '' IS NOT NULL |
+------------+----------------+
|          0 |              1 |
+------------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The above result set shows that empty string (‘’) is not NULL. It means empty string (‘’) is a value itself because as we know that NULL means NO VALUE.

Example

mysql> create table test(id int NOT NULL, Name Varchar(10));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.19 sec)

mysql> Insert into test6(id, name) values('1', 'Gaurav'),('0','Rahul'),('','Aarav');
Query OK, 3 rows affected, 1 warning (0.08 sec)
Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 1

Warning (Code 1366): Incorrect integer value: '' for column 'id' at row 3

mysql> Select * from test;
+----+--------+
| id | Name |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Gaurav |
|  0 | Rahul  |
|  0 | Aarav  |
+----+--------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

From the result sets above, it can be observed that we can insert zero(0) an empty string(‘’) into a column which is declared as NOT NULL.