How to Correct "null" Strings After JDBC Import

This article contains a workaround for a problem with Core Connect JDBC import operations. When using JDBC import, null values are ingested as the string "null" instead of as true null values. The error was introduced when Core Connect was released with v2022.005.0, and affects all versions through v2022.011.0, which contains the fix.

As a workaround, you can add a MultiFormula as the first transformation in your unified dataset to apply the following transformation to the columns in your unified dataset:

map(
  lambda x: CASE 
    WHEN x == 'null' THEN null
    ELSE x 
  END,
  $COL
)

You add all columns to the MultiFormula with the following exceptions:

• The column designated as the “spend” column, as the string "null" and a true null value are both automatically converted to 0.
• The Tamr Core-generated columns tamr_id, origin_source_name, and origin_entity_id

For example:

This transformation replaces the string "null" with a true null value in array<string> columns.