4 ms·
> How is it possible that the db contains records with such a vital datum missing? It might not be missing, it also can be unknown and unknowable. There are pe
by tpm 2y ago
> How is it possible that the db contains records with such a vital datum missing?
It might not be missing, it also can be unknown and unknowable. There are people with their date of birth not recorded or recorded only approximately. It happens when the date is recorded on a piece of a paper in a building that then burns down or during natural or human-made catastrophes. Or it might not be recorded at all, or only some parts are missing (like the day of the month). Working for a different public administration, it's so common we have a special date type for that.
- d1sxeyes 2y agoOr a definitely wrong value was removed but there's nothing to correct it with. For example, if someone was registered with a birth date of 02/18/1458, or has a birth certificate with that on it. Bear in mind that humans make mistakes, and the people who issue birth certificates or type them up are humans. 02/18/1458 is patently wrong, but what do you do? Just guess that someone misread a 9 as a 4? What if the person in front of you is clearly too young (or old) to have been born in 1958? You can't just revoke someone's social security because someone screwed up.