If you assume that NULL is a placeholder for a value that exists, you must require the basic property that A=A be true, even when A is NULL, because any value e

If you assume that NULL is a placeholder for a value that exists, you must require the basic property that A=A be true, even when A is NULL, because any value equals itself. This does not mean that NULL=NULL should always be true. So, this is just to point out one of the many examples of SQL being incompatible with a "value existent, but unknown" semantics. NULLs in SQL are quite a mess.