Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 June 16

= June 16 =

How to bookmark a search result?
I wish to bookmark a search result on a map website. In particular, I want to bookmark on streetmap.co.uk a search of UK streets with "nightingale" in them. Doing the search is easy and works well, but the URL at the top is just for the starting search page, not for the selected result. There is no "stuff" after the "?" in the URL. Is this just the way that website works, or is there something I might try to get a results link? (I can always make notes in the page title of the bookmark if there is no solution.) -- SGBailey (talk) 07:21, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
 * You can use http://streetmap.co.uk/street/nightingale to do your search. There was a clue at the bottom of the page with How to link to us with how to bookmark location searches. A good guess replacing "loc" with "street" worked. StrayBolt (talk) 08:10, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Excellent. Thanks. - - SGBailey (talk) 04:21, 17 June 2017 (UTC)

BAST for NULL
I'm looking at a dataset from a New York-based hospital. Many fields in the data have the word BAST. It is clearly being used to indicate that there is no value, or NULL in computer/database-speak. I've never seen BAST used like that before. Googling doesn't turn up anyone else using BAST to mean NULL. Has anyone here seen it used in such a way? If so, what does BAST mean? Is it an acronym? Is it some foreign language's translation for "empty"? 209.149.113.5 (talk) 19:36, 16 June 2017 (UTC)


 * It might be an acronym they invented for a particular case (such as 5, below). Note that there are many reasons a null might be used:


 * 1) To signify that this question has not yet been asked or answered. For example, when a new customer record is created, all the fields might be filled with this type of null, until data is entered for each.


 * 2) To signify that this Q has been asked, but no answer provided. For example, if you ask people their sex, but give them the option not to reply.


 * 3) To signify that this Q has been asked, but there is no answer possible. For example, if they have no middle name, they can't supply one.


 * 4) There can invalid mathematical calculation results, such as NaN.


 * 5) There can be special cases to use nulls in one location. For example, if data was transferred from one system to another but certain fields couldn't be filled in due to incompatibilities, this is a special type of null that may merit a special way to denote it.


 * Spaces (for character fields) of zeroes (for numeric fields) might be one type of null used in some cases, where a space or zero isn't a possible answer, such as the name and number of people for a restaurant reservation. On the other hand, a zero for the table number might have the special meaning that "no table has yet been assigned". StuRat (talk) 19:45, 16 June 2017 (UTC)


 * I finally figured out that it doesn't mean NULL. It is used to indicate "BASEMENT". It can appear just about anywhere in any address field. It also occurs elsewhere then the data entry is being done on the wrong fields. I figured it out because sometimes they use BSMT instead of BAST. They also use PH a lot for PENTHOUSE. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:54, 19 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Oh! Well solved.  Thanks for telling us. --76.71.5.114 (talk) 08:02, 20 June 2017 (UTC)