How specifically request rows with null values through an API request

Question

This is in the context of a Python API. I have a column where the value can be either True, False or Null, lets call it is_impounded. The Null "value" is when it is unknown whether it is impounded or not.

I want to be able to pass a query parameter in a GET request which gets all rows where it is unknown whether the car is impounded. I cant pass GET /cars?is_impounded=None because that is the same as GET /cars which returns ALL rows. My other thought was to use the strings 'yes' 'no' 'unknown' as the column value and then query GET /cars?is_impounded=unknown. But that just seems a bit odd.

Has anyone had this issue before and how did you resolve it?

This is not a Python question as the answer depends entirely on the implementation details of the third-party API that you are passing GET requests to. You may be able to use /cars?is_impounded= or it may implement something else such as passing JSON /cars?filters={"is_impounded":null} or anything else. — MT0
– MT0, Commented Mar 14 at 12:55
If you are asking how other APIs implement this (which is probably too broad of a question) then you can look at Django which would pass a Q object to perform the filtering something like Cars.objects.all(Q(is_impounded__isnull=True)) — MT0
– MT0, Commented Mar 14 at 13:01

Coco Q. · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-14 13:07:29Z

0

Try

GET /cars?is_impounded=null

instead of

GET /cars?is_impounded=None

answered Mar 14 at 13:07

Coco Q.

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MT0 · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-14 13:15:21Z

0

You have four possible states: all, true, false or unknown.

All you need is four possible filter values for your API endpoint:

GET /cars?is_impounded=*
GET /cars?is_impounded=true
GET /cars?is_impounded=false
GET /cars?is_impounded=null

or

GET /cars?is_impounded=ALL
GET /cars?is_impounded=IMPOUNDED
GET /cars?is_impounded=NOT_IMPOUNDED
GET /cars?is_impounded=UNKNOWN

or

GET /cars?is_impounded=
GET /cars?is_impounded=YES
GET /cars?is_impounded=NO
GET /cars?is_impounded=UNDEFINED

or any other combination of values with the same semantic meaning.

What you chose is personal preference.

answered Mar 14 at 13:15

MT0

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