4.12 Null Handling

FOCUS dataset records that don't have a value that can be presented for a column must be handled in a consistent way to reduce friction for FinOps practitioners who consume the data for analysis, reporting, and other use cases.

Column conforming to NullHandling attribute MUST adhere to the following requirements:

• FOCUS dataset column MUST use null for absent values when the FOCUS dataset column is defined as nullable.
• FOCUS dataset column MUST NOT contain empty strings or placeholder strings (e.g., Not Applicable) for absent values when the FOCUS dataset column contains string values.
• FOCUS dataset column MUST NOT contain placeholder numeric values (e.g., 0) for absent values when the FOCUS dataset column contains numeric values.

Indicates how to handle columns that don't have a value.