# Filter with empty string

**URL:** <https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373>\
**Category:** Ask the Community\
**Tags:** filters\
**Created:** [January 10, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373 "2023-01-10T03:20:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Engineer](https://community.holistics.io/user_avatar/community.holistics.io/engineer/32/1712_2.png) [@Engineer](https://community.holistics.io/u/Engineer)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373/1 "2023-01-10T03:20:42Z")

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I have set of text-type dimensions where value is sometimes an empty string and sometimes null.  
Is there a way to filter the report to show only rows where value matches to an empty string? Or is there workaround to use a wildcard as a filter?

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**Author:** ![thienpham](https://community.holistics.io/user_avatar/community.holistics.io/thienpham/32/975_2.png) [@thienpham](https://community.holistics.io/u/thienpham)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373/2 "2023-01-11T16:53:35Z")

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Hi @Engineer,

We understand it is quite annoying when you can’t filter on empty strings and null values as we don’t support it right now. However, you can [create a custom field in the data model](https://docs.holistics.io/tutorials/add-custom-fields) to define the empty string as a unique character (In this case, you can consider using CASE WHEN). Btw, we will add this to our backlog to make it more convenient in the future.

Cheers

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**Author:** ![colin](https://community.holistics.io/user_avatar/community.holistics.io/colin/32/1223_2.png) [@colin](https://community.holistics.io/u/colin)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373/3 "2023-09-28T19:34:12Z")

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filtering for null values is available now in the conditions drop down, are empty strings still not supported at this point?

thanks!

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**Author:** ![SterlingParamoreMSE](https://community.holistics.io/user_avatar/community.holistics.io/sterlingparamoremse/32/689_2.png) [@SterlingParamoreMSE](https://community.holistics.io/u/SterlingParamoreMSE)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373/4 "2024-12-19T23:07:02Z")

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@thienpham - I noticed this is still not supported. Furthermore, it _looks_ like it should be supported because I can select an empty string, but then Holistics reverts back to treating it as “Any Value”

 ![image](https://community.holistics.io/uploads/default/original/2X/d/d0ae436b6fdf766298fc08e92fd789855cdb169f.png)

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**Author:** ![kaid](https://community.holistics.io/user_avatar/community.holistics.io/kaid/32/12_2.png) [@kaid](https://community.holistics.io/u/kaid)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 4:23am UTC](https://community.holistics.io/t/filter-with-empty-string/1373/5 "2024-12-20T04:23:33Z")

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Hi @SterlingParamoreMSE,  
Yes this is still not ‘officially’ supported.  
However, if the suggestion list has empty string value, you can still select it (this should be similar to your case).  
Regarding the issue that Holistics reverts back to treating empty string as “Any Value”, it looks like a bug. We will investigate and fix it ASAP. I will keep you updated!