difference between null QString and empty QString

A null QString is an uninitialized QString while an empty QString is a QString initialized with an empty string(reference).

QString s1;
QString s2("");
if(s1==s2)
  qDebug()<<"same";//same
else
  qDebug()<<"not same";
qDebug()<<s1.isNull();//true
qDebug()<<s1.isEmpty();//true
qDebug()<<s2.isNull();//false
qDebug()<<s2.isEmpty();//true

A NULL QString is almost the same as an empty QString except isNull returns true for a NULL QString but returns false for an empty QString.

I never realized the difference between if a QString is empty and NULL until I got an error when inserting an empty string to a database table that requires the column not null.

Column ‘col1’ cannot be null QMYSQL3: Unable to execute statement

QString sql = "insert into table3 values(:col);";
QSqlQuery query;
query.prepare(sql);
QString col;
query.bindValue(":col",col);
if(!query.exec())
{
    qDebug()<<query.lastError().text();
    exit(1);
}

Here, the table field col1 has a NOT NULL constraint but we use the QSqlQuery::bindValue function to bind the placeholder :col to a NULL QString, which results in the error. The null QString is converted to a NULL QVariant, i.e., QVariant(QVariant::string). To insert an empty string instead of a null value into the table, you should use the empty QString instead of the null QString, i.e.,

QString sql = "insert into table3 values(:col);";
QSqlQuery query;
query.prepare(sql);
QString col("");
query.bindValue(":col",col);
if(!query.exec())
{
    qDebug()<<query.lastError().text();
    exit(1);
}

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