Re: MySQL Certification Practice Question

[Rick James]

"and" is terribly abused in English. It sometimes means "or". But in mathematics, "and" and "or" have distinctly different meanings.

"projects that don't have a start and end date" is looking for both fields missing, mathematically: Start IS NULL AND End IS NULL.

"projects that don't have a start date and projects that don't have an end date" is, as you say, really "OR" (Start IS NULL OR End IS NULL). Note: This is equivalent to "NOT (Start IS NOT NULL AND End IS NOT NULL)".

As a native English speaker, the above is 'clear'. As a mathematician, the misuse of "and" irritates me.

So, should the question writer have used less confusing language? Or is this really a test in how well you understand English?