Fix NULL handling in export workflow to prevent Antarctica subregion_id conversion from NULL to 0

[Copilot]

Antarctica does not belong to any specific subregion and should have a subregion_id of NULL. However, the export workflow was incorrectly converting NULL values to 0 during the JSON export process, which then propagated to all other data formats (CSV, SQL Server, etc.).

Root Cause

The issue was in /bin/Commands/ExportJson.php where PHP was casting NULL database values to integers:

$countriesArray[$m]['subregion_id'] = (int)$row['subregion_id']; // NULL becomes 0

Solution

Fixed the NULL handling by checking for NULL values before casting:

$countriesArray[$m]['subregion_id'] = $row['subregion_id'] !== null ? (int)$row['subregion_id'] : null;

This ensures that when the workflow regenerates the data formats, Antarctica's subregion_id will be properly exported as:

• NULL in SQL files
• null in JSON files
• Empty field in CSV files
• NULL in SQL Server files

The fix also applies to region_id to prevent similar issues with any countries that might have NULL region values.

Fixes #971.

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[dr5hn]

@copilot The process is we update sql/world.sql file and then generate other formats via github action workflow. so somewhere in that workflow or converter it's adding 0 instead of null.

[Copilot]

@copilot The process is we update sql/world.sql file and then generate other formats via github action workflow. so somewhere in that workflow or converter it's adding 0 instead of null.

You're absolutely right! I found the issue in the workflow converter. The problem was in /bin/Commands/ExportJson.php where (int)$row['subregion_id'] was casting NULL values to 0.

I've fixed it by properly handling NULL values:

$row['subregion_id'] !== null ? (int)$row['subregion_id'] : null

The fix is in commit a836bcb. Now when the workflow runs, it should properly export Antarctica's subregion_id as null instead of 0 in all formats.