Cannot convert to null error when it's not null

[Nisar3]

In my BR, I've the following lines

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/ ) {



    // report DataCore
    var table = current.getTableName();
    var recSysId = current.sys_id;
    var eventName;
    var finalPayload = {};
    var payload = new global.Foo().bar(table, recSysId);
    var requestPayload = new global.JSON().decode(payload);
    finalPayload.table = table.toString();
    if (current.operation() == 'insert') {
        finalPayload.operation = 'create';
    } else {
        finalPayload.operation = current.operation().toString();
    }
    finalPayload.data = requestPayload;
    var sysHeader = gs.getProperty('gh.datacore.headervalues').split(',');

and the log says the following:

com.glide.script.RhinoEcmaError: Cannot convert null to an object.
sys_script.b8a9bfbb1b4de950c5722137b04bcb14.script : Line(16) column(0)
13: if (current.operation() == 'insert') {
14: finalPayload.operation = 'create';
15: } else {
==> 16: finalPayload.operation = current.operation().toString();
17: }
18: finalPayload.data = requestPayload;
19: var sysHeader = gs.getProperty('gh.datacore.headervalues').split(',');

Now what has stumped me are the following:

1. finalPayload is already defined as object on line 9

2. current.operation() is out of the box method

So what is causing the issue on line 16?

[Ravi Gaurav]

Hi @Nisar3 

To avoid this error, you can first check if current.operation() is empty before calling .toString().

// Check if operation is an empty string or undefined, and handle accordingly
if (operation == '') {
finalPayload.operation = 'Define your own logic';
} 

[Nisar3]

Hi Gaurav, 

My question stands - why would current.operation() be null in any scenario? The BR is set to run for "insert" and "update", so the value should be one of these, right?

[Nisar3]

Perhaps @AnkurP can shed some light here.

[Nisar3 · Accepted solution]

It appears that having multiple BRs with the same order will cause the current.operation() to sometimes be null. I changed the order to lower value and it solved the problem. But the cause is still unknown as to why does it behave that way.