# Elasticsearch-spark: empty fields are returned as "None" when using EsSpark.esRdd()

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** es-hadoop\
**Created:** [August 24, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919 "2015-08-24T05:29:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lists\_arun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@lists\_arun](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lists_arun)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919/1 "2015-08-24T05:29:13Z")

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I am using the latest build of elasticsearch-spark. (2.2.0.BUILD-20150818.024341-55) with Scala 2.11. When I process results from EsSpark.esRdd(), I find that empty columns (or fields) are returned as the string "None" instead of as the empty string. This seems like a bug. Or is there some setting to ensure that I get the empty string and not "None".

Thanks,  
arun

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lists\_arun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@lists\_arun](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lists_arun)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919/2 "2015-08-25T19:22:53Z")

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I found the solution. I needed to set "es.field.read.empty.as.null" to "no" (the default value is "yes").

```
  val esRdd: RDD[(String, Map[String, AnyRef])] =
    EsSpark.esRDD(sc, esIndexType, Map(
      "es.nodes" -> esHostPort,
      "es.field.read.empty.as.null" -> "no"))
```

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**Author:** ![costin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/costin/32/44950_2.png) [@costin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/costin)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919/3 "2015-08-28T09:57:55Z")

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Glad to see you sorted things out.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-spark-empty-fields-are-returned-as-none-when-using-esspark-esrdd/27919/4 "2017-07-06T13:27:37Z")

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