proposal: database/sql: Return zero time.Time for nil values instead of error

[b-s-a]

Currently when you retrieving null timestamps from database result is error: unsupported Scan, storing driver.Value type into type *time.Time. This requires additional work for adding helper class NullTime with Scan() and Value() methods and then parsing them. But type time.Time has its own check for nil type: Time.IsZero(). It is need just add next code to src/database/sql/convert.go:301 to reduce extra work for users:

		case *time.Time:
			if d == nil {
				return errNilPtr
			}
			*d = time.Time{}
			return nil

[bcmills]

CC @bradfitz @kardianos @kevinburke

[kardianos]

That would break existing programs. V2 will allow something like that.