Null was first used by British computer scientist, Tony Hoare, 60 years ago as a term meaning "no value" and it's still very much in use in many databases today.

In database applications, a null object is a valid value for a field. This class differentiates between a null value (a null object) and an uninitialised value (the DBNull.Value instance).

database, a NULL value means unknown, so any comparison or operation against a NULL value is also NULL, and any test that returns NULL is always ignored. For example, neither one of these ...

Therefore, it is a good practice to simply use the term null or nulls (without appending the term “value” or “values” to it). Because a null is not a value it is not greater than, less than, or equal ...

More preferable might be a description of “direct-NULL” when using a NULL and an “indirect-NULL” when using a “NULL value” surrogate. Ultimately, whether a direct-NULL or an indirect-NULL approach is ...