isnull in databricks

Question

Hi Expert,

when i am using isnull(col1,'') in databricks it is giving me error

AnalysisException: [WRONG_NUM_ARGS.WITHOUT_SUGGESTION] The isnull requires 1 parameters but the actual number is 2. Please, refer to 'https://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/sql-ref-functions.html' for a fix.; line 58 pos 19

Answer 1

@Shambhu Rai - Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

The error message suggests that the isnull function is being called with two parameters instead of one. The isnull function in Spark SQL is used to check if a column is null or not. It takes only one parameter, which is the column to be checked.

In your case, it seems like you are passing two parameters to the isnull function. The second parameter '' is not required. If you want to replace null values with an empty string, you can use the coalesce function instead.

Here's an example of how you can use the coalesce function to replace null values with an empty string:

SELECT coalesce(col1, '') as col1_new FROM table_name

This will replace any null values in col1 with an empty string and return a new column col1_new.

For more details, refer to the below links
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/sql/language-manual/functions/isnull

https://azurelib.com/how-to-find-null-and-not-null-values-in-pyspark-azure-databricks/

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

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