Forum Discussion
BLANK VS NULL VS EMPTY
When I load a csv table to power query with values in empty columns, sometimes null or sometimes an empty cell comes out. What does it depend on? I don't understand the difference between seeing the empty cell or seeing "null". I thought it depended on the data type, that is, null for text type and empty for number type, but no. I change the data type and the cell content does not change
1 Reply
sergiotb2001 perhaps this could give you more clarity: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Service/Difference-between-blank-and-empty-in-advanced-filtering/m-p/1690495#:~:text=in%20the%20service.-,BLANK%20is%20the%20equivalent%20of%20null%2C%20while%20%22empty%22%20is,%22%20(an%20empty%20string).&text=Would%20you%20agree%3F&text=So%20even%20though%20the%20value,column%20has%20no%20selectable%20values.
https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/How-to-deal-with-null-value-and-blank-value-in-power-Query/td-p/2462982
Otherwise, you have it the other way, if you have text, it is empty "", if it is number, it is "null".If it is number, it can be only "blank"
If it is text, it can be blank (null) or empty "".
A colleague of mine once explained to me, that sometimes this is used to distinguish whether the user on purpose filled the filed empty "" or did not fill the value at all. Perhaps somebody could elaborate on this further...
