# Clover 2.8.0: Null Key values and DENORMALIZER nodes

**URL:** <https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583>\
**Category:** CloverDX Platform\
**Created:** [September 8, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583 "2009-09-08T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anweston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@anweston](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/anweston)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583/1 "2009-09-08T00:00:00Z")

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Heya,

I noticed that the release notes for 2.8.0 say that it “unified null and empty field values in sorting, Dedup, etc” Were there any changes to the DENORMALIZER node? We have files where the key fields are null and with the DEDUP node that isn’t a problem because of the “equalNULL” attribute. The DENORMALIZER hasn’t had that kind of flag and we used a forum suggestion to use a REFORMAT node to put a dummy value in the nullable key fields and then strip it out in the DENORMALIZER node. Do we still have to do this with version 2.8.0? We’re trying to minimize the number of nodes for performance’s sake. :mrgreen:

Thanks,  
Anna

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**Author:** ![twaller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@twaller](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/twaller)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583/2 "2009-09-09T06:31:42Z")

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Hello,

in CloverETL 2.8, the EqualNULL attribute exists in the following components:  
Dedup  
DataIntersection  
Denormalizer  
Rollup (new component)  
in the four components mentioned above, the default value of EqualNULL is true.  
Aggregate - in it, the default value remains false.

Best regards,

Tomas Waller

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**Author:** ![twaller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@twaller](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/twaller)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583/3 "2009-09-09T06:56:56Z")

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Moreover, in sorting components:  
ExtSort  
FastSort  
SortWithinGroups  
null values are considered equal.

In all Joiners, null values are considered different.

Regards,

Tomas Waller

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**Author:** ![mzatopek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@mzatopek](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/mzatopek)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583/4 "2009-09-09T07:14:03Z")

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The answer is YES. Now you can already omit your reformat node, because the null values are handled as equal by default. Enjoy it 🙂

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**Author:** ![anweston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@anweston](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/anweston)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/clover-2-8-0-null-key-values-and-denormalizer-nodes/583/5 "2009-09-09T14:37:16Z")

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Woo hoo! Another set of nodes we can get rid of!!

Thanks for the replies!

Anna 😃