Text columns with NULL are converted to empty text in datamodel

[__Marc__]

I have a dataflow entity that get it's data via a query from a MSSQL database. Some columns can have NULL values.

Looking at the result in the dataflow I see those NULL values appear.

In  the data model file get the data from the dataflow entity. When the column is not text, eg. a numeric or date column, then I see the NULL values correctly appear.

However for text columns, the NULL values are somehow automatically converted to empty text values. Everytime I have to inserted an extra replace step (empty text to NULL) to correct that, which is annoying.

Is there a way to correct this behaviour?

[v-jianboli-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @__Marc__ ,

According to my knowledge, your requirement could not be realized currently. When you change the data type to text, the null values will be converted to blank. An idea similar with what you expect has been submitted in the following link, please vote it up and you can add comments. What’s more, if a feedback is high voted there by other customers, it will be promising that Microsoft Product Team will take it into consideration when designing the next version in the future.

Please refer to:Microsoft Idea (powerbi.com)

Best Regards,

Jianbo Li

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