Glossary CSV import: Integer custom attributes default to 0 when empty (NULL not supported?)

Hello anmarmon,

Thanks for sharing this. With Business Glossary CSV imports in Microsoft Purview, numeric custom attributes could normalize empty values during import, which in turn could result in a default value being applied. Because of this, it isn’t possible to reliably differentiate between an explicitly provided value of 0 and a value that was left unspecified when using integer attributes.

Given that behavior, the more workable patterns today tend to be:

• defining the attribute as a string when the value is optional, or
• using an explicit, agreed‑upon placeholder value for numeric fields and documenting its meaning.

So yes — modeling optional numeric metadata as strings, or using clearly defined alternative values, might be the way to go in this scenario. Thanks again for calling it out and sharing your findings.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

PI

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