Filter Rows Tile | Option to include or exclude NULL

AlexBishop

Currently if you use a filter such as <> or != "xyz", this will also filter out any NULL values in the column as well.

This is default behaviour for SQL, and I do understand that the reason it's filtering out NULL is because it cannot compare a value to a NULL. So it implicitly excludes NULLs, just as SQL would.

The workaround is obviously to put a formula tile as the step before, and do IFNULL(`column`,'') so it's now an empty string instead of NULL, which then makes the filter work as expected. This however is not scale-able for if you have a lots of columns.

I think this is not obvious for users, especially users who are low-code or not very technical which is where Magic ETL shines.

Could we perhaps add a check box as an option to "include / exclude" NULLs from the results as well? And then, the tile in the background could do the IFNULL() for the user if this is ticked. You could add a description of what it does as well next to it.

I think this will help both technical and non-technical users. At the very least we could add a description warning that it can't handle NULL comparisons, for those low-code users.

Filter Bug Steps.zip

AndreaHenderson

This is a great idea! I love the idea of the checkbox to allow users to opt into the behavior. I will definitely review with the team.