Null and undefined in string fields

Questions
,
1

Describe the problem/error/question

Null

When I set a string field as null, I get a string “null”.
What I expect: receive null value, not a string. By the way, for string or boolean fields I get null as expected.

This is especially bad for using ternar operator where I receive “null” if null.

Undefined

The same with undefined. In 0.236.0 when I defined a string field with a non-existent value to a string, nothing happened. I used this to check if the prop was defined.
In 1,8 2 a field with “undefined” string value is created. Why, it shouldn’t be like that.

Screenshots for undefined

0.236.0

image
image788×450 18 KB

1.8.2

image
image983×549 25.2 KB

Please share your workflow

Process for null

Share the output returned by the last node

[
  {
    "null string": "null",
    "null boolean": null
  }
]

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.8.2
  • Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): main
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker-compose
  • Operating system: Ubuntu 22
2

Hey @artildo,

Internally for the string we will try to convert the value as we are expecting it to be a string, We should probably not do that for null / undefined. I will get a dev ticket created now for a future change.

Internal dev ticket is NODE-824

2 Likes
3

Hey @Jon, thank you. Would be fine. I know people who spent hours trying to figure out where these “undefined” strings came from.

For now I use either Set nodes in JSON form or Code nodes to treat null and non-existent strings as usual.

4

Hey @artildo,

Oddly enough I have not seen anyone else report it, Where are the folk who spent hours trying to firgure it out posting about it?

5

@Jon In the Telegram-community Telegram: Contact @n8n_community
and in private messages followed after I reported it there

1 Like
6

Interesting, Just think it could have been solved a lot quicker if they used an official community :smiley:

7

I waited 2 days because of weekend :slight_smile:
Sometimes it’s quicker to receive the support there.

8

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