# Difference between null and "" in contact property value

**URL:** <https://community.hubspot.com/t/difference-between-null-and-in-contact-property-value/103195>\
**Category:** APIs & Integrations\
**Tags:** developer-tools, contacts\
**Created:** [March 22, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/difference-between-null-and-in-contact-property-value/103195 "2024-03-22T11:38:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ASolovev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASolovev](https://community.hubspot.com/u/ASolovev)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/difference-between-null-and-in-contact-property-value/103195/1 "2024-03-22T11:38:57Z")

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Hello dear hubspot community!  
I have two simillar contacts with property “hs\_lead\_status” = empty value on UI.  
But when I’m requesting them via API I have 2 different values. One contact has “hs\_lead\_status”: null, but other one has “hs\_lead\_status”: “”.  
For analytics purposes I need to have exact same values, so I’m trying to find is it even possible to set “” to null value?  
I tried to unset value via UI, API request and imports, but contact with “” still have “” how I wouldn’t tried.  
Thank you in advance!

{

“id”: “11572901”,

“properties”: {

“createdate”: “2023-09-11T13:21:39.531Z”,

“hs\_lead\_status”: “”,

“hs\_object\_id”: “11572901”,

“lastmodifieddate”: “2024-03-22T11:18:53.422Z”

},

“createdAt”: “2023-09-11T13:21:39.531Z”,

“updatedAt”: “2024-03-22T11:18:53.422Z”,

“archived”: false

}

{

“id”: “3301138120”,

“properties”: {

“createdate”: “2024-03-22T11:21:38.907Z”,

“hs\_lead\_status”: null,

“hs\_object\_id”: “3301138120”,

“lastmodifieddate”: “2024-03-22T11:23:40.849Z”

},

“createdAt”: “2024-03-22T11:21:38.907Z”,

“updatedAt”: “2024-03-22T11:23:40.849Z”,

“archived”: false

}

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SteveHTM](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/stevehtm/32/22074_2.png) [@SteveHTM](https://community.hubspot.com/u/SteveHTM)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/difference-between-null-and-in-contact-property-value/103195/2 "2024-03-22T14:42:36Z")

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@ASolovev -- I don’t know if I have a very good answer for you here, but I’ll try and contribute my observations.

- unset property values, in general, seem to be best represented (in Python at least) by the intrinsic ‘None’ value.

- hs\_lead\_status, in particular, is an ennumerated type and therefore will tend to have two “unset” values as you have discovered. The first is when the property has never been set (a new record for example) - where you might see the value as null or None. The second is where the property has been “cleared” to a default unset value in the picklist through the UI or other action - where the interval value may well be set to “” perhaps depending on how you have set up the ennumeration.

I hope this is helpful in resolving your question.

Steve