Test if field contains only white space

Jasper · October 2022

Hi,

I am still new to ADS. I have fields that contain just white spaces (1-3 spaces in a row [" "]). The ISNULL test does not FAIL these as it is not technically NULL. Is there a test for this? Note I cannot exclude every field with a space " " as many are valid spaces between two words.

Thanks

Li He · October 2022

Hi Jasper,

The Function 'Is Empty' might be what you are looking for. It checks whether the value is empty. An empty value can be any of the following:

whitespace(s)
null
empty list
zero-length string
unprintable character

https://docs.experianaperture.io/data-quality/aperture-data-studio-v2/get-started/create-functions/#validation~native-functions

Jasper · October 2022

NNote, I realise I can do this using 'equals' on known empty strings (e.g. equals ' , ' ',' '). However I would like something that can identify no matter how many empty spaces there are without hardcoding.

Josh Boxer · October 2022

Hi Jasper

The Function 'Compact spaces' Reduces multiple spaces in input value to single space, so no matter how many spaces they will always be a single space. Equals single space character will then cover any number of repeated spaces in future

https://docs.experianaperture.io/data-quality/aperture-data-studio-v2/get-started/create-functions/#cleansing~native-functions

Jasper · December 2022

Thanks Josh. I also realised there is a built in 'Is Empty' function that can be accessed through the Transform step. I tested it and it seems to get the same result (all white space or NULL fields).

Test if field contains only white space

Best Answer

Answers

Categories