BL_NULL= Data Set Option

Specifies the string that represents a null value.

Valid in: DATA and PROC steps (when accessing DBMS data using SAS/ACCESS software)
Categories: Bulk Loading
Data Set Control
Default: '\N' (TEXT mode), unquoted empty value (CSV mode)
Requirement: To specify this option, you must first specify BULKLOAD=YES.
Data source: Greenplum, HAWQ, PostgreSQL, Yellowbrick
Note: Support for Yellowbrick was added in SAS 9.4M7.
See: BL_DELIMITER= data set option, BL_FORCE_NOT_NULL= data set option, BL_FORMAT= data set option, BL_QUOTE= data set option, BULKLOAD= data set option

Table of Contents

Syntax

BL_NULL='/N' | empty-value

Details

You might prefer an empty string even in TEXT mode for cases where you do not want to distinguish nulls from empty strings. When you use this option with external and web tables, any data item that matches this string is considered a null value.

Last updated: February 3, 2026