Ok, I'm about to eat a little crow, I think.
I ran these 3 sql updates as a test...
(The dept table consists of 3 columns
DEPTNO = NUMERIC PRIMARY KEY
DNAME = VARCHAR2
LOC = VARCHAR2)
INSERT INTO DEPT VALUES(14,'TEST6',CHR(0));
INSERT INTO DEPT VALUES(12,'TEST4',NULL);
INSERT INTO DEPT...