I have nulls (NULL as default value) in a non-required field in a database. They do not cause the value "null" to show up in a web page. However, the value "null" is put in place when creating data via a web page input form. This was due to the JavaScript taking null and transcribing it to the string "null" when submitting the data via AJAX and jQuery. Make sure that this is not the base issue as simply doing the above is only a band-aid to the actual issue. I also implemented the above solution IFNULL(...) as a double measure. Thanks.