title: Select fields not equal to the empty string in oracle
body: <p>I'm trying to write a query that simply selects all non-empty names. Both the following queries return no results:</p>
  
  <pre><code> SELECT name FROM MyTable WHERE name != '';
  
   SELECT name FROM MyTable WHERE name = '';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>For context, both of these queries do return results:</p>
  
  <pre><code> SELECT name FROM MyTable WHERE name != 'a';
  
   SELECT name FROM MyTable WHERE name IS NOT NULL;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I read somewhere that the empty string is equivalent to NULL in oracle, but I still don't see why that explains this behaviour.  I need to support both SQL Server and Oracle which is why I can't just rely on <code>WHERE name IS NOT NULL</code></p>
  
  <p>Can anyone explain what's happening here?  Thanks!</p>