Search for EMPTY or NULL is not working

[maduko]

After importing a large group of contacts I am trying to identify those that include an External ID.

Using the Advanced Search we tried various combinations of Null and Empty (all upper case, all lower, etc). None of them return any results.

After checking the obvious (yes, there are some records with an external identifier and some without) I am posing the question here: How do I find the records that do not have anything in that field?

Civi 4.5.8 on Drupal 7

[ayduns]

I don't think you can do that with Advanced Search, but Search Builder lets you search for EMPTY or NULL.

[JonGold]

Hi maduko,

You need to use Search Builder, not Advanced Search, to get the results you need.  Select Contacts, External Identifier, is empty.

[maduko]

Aha!

Thank you.