Why does a select string list type in a Driving table include a blank and null option?

[Jon Jones]

I have created a Driving Table that has a list of strings in one column-- and for each select list when adding a record, there is a space at the top, then a "null" option at the bottom of each list. Is this expected behaviour? Can it be configured so that there's only either a null or a blank?

image2016-4-26 12:26:29.png

[Jon Jones · Accepted solution]

Thank you, it was answered in the support ticket.

I'll put that information here in case it helps anybody:

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Andrey Kozinets (Rozdoum)

Today 3:21 PM

Hello Jon

The empty list item (the top one on the screenshot) is there by default. TGE always adds it automatically so that users have an option to select 'nothing' in the list column.
The item with the 'null' value is something your column query returns. It means that your query returns records where the selected column is null. The easiest thing to do is to update your query so that it does not return records with null values. For example, if your query now is

col.mylist.query=select name, id from airplanes

you can update it to be

col.mylist.query=select name, id from airplanes where name is not null

P.S. I am assuming you do not need the 'null' values in your list, do you?

I hope I got the problem well and suggested an appropriate solution for you. If not - feel free to ask for more

Kind regards,
Andrey K

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So the answer is to basically form the query so that it's not returning null results. The queries are based on MySQL or Postgres, I think. I had to translate it to MS SQL, and ended up being:

colmylist.query= select column_name from table_name where column_name != 'null'

For my example, they were a list of strings stored in the sql table.

Thanks for the help!

[francis]

Oops - glad that it helped and kudos to Andrey.

[francis]

Hi Jon,

I'm not sure if you want to continue the discussion here or on our support site, but in any case - could you share your grid configuration ?

Thanks,

Francis