Hi @kenser 

When you check Zapier history, is that field coming through blank or with the world ‘null’?

Unless that field is entirely blank exist=true.

It is empty --- completely blank.

However “exists” filter is returning true.

Ok @kenser 

I'm going to flag this post for the Zapier Community Team. They should have more insight on this and can escalate to the support team if needed.

Sit tight, and someone will contact you soon.

Hi @kenser - thank you for your patience.

I’ve escalated your issue to the investigation team here at Zapier with the information you have provided.

Hi @kenser!

I'm checking in with you here, since I don’t see a response to the message that our Support team had sent you. Have you managed to resolve things or did you still need help here? Please let us know :)

Hi, I’m using Default Value transform to put a random text in my blank field.

After that, I use filter step based on this random text that it will only be applied when this variable was empty.

Thanks for sharing @Jonathan Santos !

This is really dumb. I went through a similar issue today, and couldn’t do something as simple as “only continue if field X is not empty”, I had to find a workaround for such a pretty basic use case.

Hi @Unly!

Usually the filter conditions ‘Exists’ and ‘Does not exist’ work for filtering based on whether or not there is data in a field. It sounds like you had a frustrating time with data that didn’t work with those conditions. I’m sorry that the filter didn’t work as you needed it to, but I’m glad that you were able to find a workaround here!

 I agree with Unly. What’s the point of the exists condition if it doesn’t check for if something exists or not?
why do we need two more steps to use an exists condition?

Is there any update to this issue?

In my use case, it seems to be searching for whether or not the field exists, rather than if the field has data in it.  Is there really no way to Filter “If Value of X is/isn’t empty/blank”?

I found this out the hard way. Had over 1,000 actions eaten through due to this filter not working. Be advised, Zapier’s article on filters is not correct as of this moment.

Is there any development regarding this case? I also found it hard to determine whether a value is empty but exists. Specifically in case when looking up a Google Sheet row, which sometimes has empty values → Zapier reads the full row including empty variables which after filtering with the “Exists” filter return True. I managed to workaround with code snippet, but it’s unnecessary hassle which eats tasks :(

Thank you in advance for any information!

The lack of [is/is_not]_empty filters definitely causes confusion, and we’ve seen use cases for both of those and use cases for the current exists filters. I kinda think of these two filter types as complementary array checks:

The exists filter is useful if you’re trying to confirm that a key is set, to ensure that a specific key—or field, in Zap context—is actually defined, regardless of its value. In other words, exists should ensure the array key is present.

The is_not_empty filter would be useful if you’re trying to confirm that a value is not empty, to ensure that a specific key—or field, in Zap context—has a value that’s not blank. In other words, is_not_empty should ensure the array value is filled.

@Danvers @Liz_Roberts @nicksimard - any chance that we might see those empty filters added in the future? Or, if the current implementation of exists does actually check both the key and value, maybe some more detail added to the article that @ColinM linked above, so folks can better understand how that filter works under the hood?

Thanks for your help!

Frustrating that this occurs.

I want to set a filter up to continue only if there is no due date and assignee set on a given Asana task.

You would think that not having a Due Date set would mean that the Due Date does not exist.

This is not the case, the Data Due At field DOES exist but there is just no value there.

So how do I set up this filter? The only other option I have is to set up a text match, where the text matches

blank

 but I can’t seem to find anything that I can use to indicate to the filter to continue only if the value is blank as I am required to put an input in there or it returns (missing value). 

As it is an asana due date and user I don’t have any workaround for this unless I set a specific dummy due date and create a dummy asana account to assign to purely for filtering.

So for anyone still looking how to do it, I found one workaround that doesn’t include writing scripts or having dummy rows. Just use “(Boolean) Is true” instead of text comparison, this will force it to treat it like a boolean and empty string would result in False and anything else would be True.

Hi @danilo, thanks for this!  I’m hoping it will work as I don’t want things to move forward at all when certain fields are empty but still exist.

Hi, 

Here’s my delimma.

On Shopify, I allowed customers to checkout either email or SMS. For abandoned carts, I wanted to add a filter on my Zap where it will only continue if the customer left their email address since I have a separate flow for SMS’s.

I currently use IF EMAIL = Exists. Am I doing it correctly or there should be another way of setting it up?

Thanks!

So for anyone still looking how to do it, I found one workaround that doesn’t include writing scripts or having dummy rows. Just use “(Boolean) Is true” instead of text comparison, this will force it to treat it like a boolean and empty string would result in False and anything else would be True.

 

You’re a legend, thanks!