Searching a blank/empty/null field

I have created an Advanced Search looking or Call Numbers that are blank/empty/NULL. When I create the search I use Call Number "contains" and then leave the value blank and click on Search. This finds all the records I'm looking for. However, when I save the search there are no results. Editing the saved search shows that the blank value has been replaced with the string "null" (lower case, without quotes). If I put the string "null" in a Call Number field, then this record shows up in the saved search. The conclusion is that the search is looking for the string "null" rather than a NULL value (perhaps a lack of capitalisation?).

In the past I have created and saved searches for blank items (such as Tags) by looking for individual vowels that a Tag does not contain (all my tags have vowels in them) but this is not really practical for searching for NULL values in other fields, e.g. Call Numbers as they are a mixture of all letters and numbers.

Is it possible to have saved searches for NULL values?

Windows XP Pro SP2, Firefox 2.0.0.8, Zotero 1.0.0rc6.r1837
  • edited June 3, 2015
    Try a saved search for Call Number "does not contain" %
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