The Smart Chef

Replacing "NULL" values with 0 using data.table in R

Replacing `NULL` or `NA` values in a `data.table` in R is useful for several reasons:

By replacing `NULL` or `NA` values with a default value, such as 0, you can ensure that your data is consistent and ready for analysis.

It is sometimes neccessary to ensure the data is read properly by software that may ingest the data next. For instance, if you are completing several data-munging steps in R and then passing the data on to Power BI for visualization, it is easier to clean this up in R as opposed to Power BI.

Replace NULL with 0 in R data.table

  

library(data.table)

# Create a data.table with NULL values
dt <- data.table(col1 = c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5), col2 = c(NULL, 2, 3, 4, 5))

# Replace NULL values in column "col2" with 0
dt[is.na(col2), col2 := 0]