If you take one thing from this week, make it this: look at the first error, not the last one.
Three people asked about this in one day, so here is the answer in writing, where it can be ignored properly.
#Field Notes
Nil, Null & Other Late-Night Surprises
A short field report on an empty value that was not actually empty.
- author
- Ilya Kessler
- date
- "2026-11-04"
- category
- "Field Notes"
- tags
- ["debugging", "incidents", "migrations", "phpunit"]
- reading
- "1 min"
nil-null-other-late-night-surprises.md
Thanks for writing this up. I have sent it to two people who needed it and one who will deny it.
Thanks for writing this up. I have sent it to two people who needed it and one who will deny it.
How long did the migration take on the full table?
We hit almost exactly this last spring. The part about the logs is painfully accurate.
How long did the migration take on the full table?
Good catch, thank you. I will add a note.
I disagree about the library, but only because I have already paid the cost of learning it.
How long did the migration take on the full table?
The run-it-twice question should be printed on a mug.
Bookmarked for the next time someone proposes rewriting it from scratch.
The run-it-twice question should be printed on a mug.