Best Practices for Handling Optional Event Properties in Tracking

When an event property has an optional value, is it better to send the event without the property or with the property with an empty value ?

3 comments

kapa.ai
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kapa.ai
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When an event property has an optional value, Mixpanel generally recommends that if the property is unavailable (e.g., null, N/A, or an empty string ""), you should not send the property at all with the event or user profile. This approach helps ensure data quality and avoids cluttering your data with meaningless or ambiguous values. If you do send the property with an empty value, it will appear as (empty string) in the UI, and if you send it as null or undefined, it will show as (not set) or undefined in reports. Not sending the property is the preferred method for representing unavailable or not-applicable values Tracking Plan Methodology.> “If certain property values (eg null, N/A, "" - empty string) are essentially considered unavailable, Mixpanel generally recommends that for those instances the property should not be sent with the event or user profile.”
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Idan D.
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Jalil K. Without the value - otherwise, when you breakdon based on those properties you’ll have many “Nulls”
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Best Practices for Handling Optional Event Properties in Tracking | Mixpanel Community