Replacing IsNull

IsNull is a function that has similarities in many programming languages. It is not always the same though. In QlikView, this function returns a Boolean value of true or false; if the passed value is null.

There is a big "however" here though. Depending upon the version of QlikView that you have, IsNull does not always return what you expect. There are differences between 32-bit and 64-bit versions on how the values are handled. It should also be noted that blank values in text files or inline data will be treated as empty strings rather than null.

SQL Server developers will be familiar with the SQL function of ISNULL (or COALESCE) that, instead of just returning a Boolean value, will return a default value if the passed value is actually null. It can be useful to replicate this.

Getting ready

Load the following script:

Load 
  Country,
  If(IsNull(Sales), 0, Sales) As Sales
Inline [
  Country, Sales
  USA, 1020
  UK, 965
  Germany, 
  France, 890
];

How to do it...

These steps...