title: Oracle SQL Updating a NOT NULL column with an empty string
body: <p>I am having an issue writing an SQL Update statement, where I need to update a not null field with an empty string.</p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE channel_mgmt.channels
      SET registered_address_id=p_address_id
          ,vendor_id=p_spc_code
       WHERE id=v_channel_id;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In this case, p_spc_code, can be set to '', and I am running into a SQL error when I run this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error report:
  ORA-01407: cannot update ("CHANNEL_MGMT"."CHANNELS"."VENDOR_ID") to NULL
  ORA-06512: at line 8973
   01407. 00000 -  "cannot update (%s) to NULL"
  *Cause:    
  *Action:
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any ideas how I can get around this?  I need to use the empty string some cases,  but I am unsure why oracle is complaining about a null value. </p>
  
  <pre><code>desc channel_mgmt.channels
  Name                  Null     Type               
  --------------------- -------- ------------------ 
  ID                    NOT NULL NUMBER(16)         
  CHANNEL_STATUS_KEY    NOT NULL VARCHAR2(64 CHAR)  
  REGISTERED_ADDRESS_ID NOT NULL NUMBER(16)         
  VENDOR_ID             NOT NULL VARCHAR2(64 CHAR)
  </code></pre>