Error in extern transformation in EXT_MERGE_JOIN

CloverDX Platform
1

Trying to use a left outer join to join multiple files but having trouble just getting two files to join receiving this error (cloverETL 2.4.3):

ERROR [WatchDog] - Node EXT_MERGE_JOIN0 finished with status: Error occurred in nested transformation: ERROR caused
by: Record number: 0, field number: 0. Message: Error in extern transformation class TransformTransformEXT_MERGE_J
OIN0: null
DEBUG [WatchDog] - Node EXT_MERGE_JOIN0 error details:
org.jetel.exception.TransformException: Record number: 0, field number: 0. Message: Error in extern transformation
class TransformTransformEXT_MERGE_JOIN0: null
at TransformTransformEXT_MERGE_JOIN0.transform(TransformTransformEXT_MERGE_JOIN0.java:48)
at org.jetel.component.MergeJoin.flushMin(MergeJoin.java:310)
at org.jetel.component.MergeJoin.execute(MergeJoin.java:347)
at org.jetel.graph.Node.run(Node.java:371)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:650)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:675)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

Here is my graph:
My first attempts were without a sort but the data was extracted sorted so it shouldn’t require sorting. I added a sort to the two files to see if that would resolve the issue but it did not. If I use the default of inner join the EXT_MERGE_JOIN works just fine. Help please!

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2

Hi,
problem is, that when you do left outer join transformation gets null on the 1st input instead of DataRecord, so in the line

${out.0.EMPI_ID} = ${in.0.attrval};

NullPointerException occurs. There is no possiblility of checking this in TLLite, so you can surround it by try-catch block:

${out.0.curentrecno} = ${in.0.curentrecno}; 
${out.0.EMPI_ID} = ${in.0.attrval};
try{
   ${out.0.Best} = ${in.1.memidnum}; 
}catch(Exception e){
   ${out.0.Best} = -1;
}
3

Thanks for the advice. I didn’t realize I’d have to put in that handling. All fixed now.