Filament Table Null Value: formatStateUsing() Doesn't Work?

In Filament tables, some values could be null, but you may want to still show some placeholder instead? A typical formatStateUsing() method wouldn't work. Let me show two alternatives.

Usually, when formatting the state, you would use the formatStateUsing() method:

TextColumn::make('status')
    ->formatStateUsing(fn (string $state): string => __("statuses.{$state}"))

But when the $state is null, the formatStateUsing() method is not executed. There are two ways to deal with this case.

Option 1: default()

The first way is to use the default() method on the column.

Tables\Columns\TextColumn::make('name'),
Tables\Columns\TextColumn::make('description')
    ->default('No description'), 

When using this method, Filament treats it as a state and also sets columns like image or color with the default values. This is different from the second alternative - placeholder.

Option 2: placeholder()

The second option is to add a placeholder.

Tables\Columns\TextColumn::make('name'),
Tables\Columns\TextColumn::make('description')
    ->placeholder('No description'), 

Placeholder has a lighter gray text color and isn't treated as a state.

If you want more Filament examples, you can find more real-life projects on our FilamentExamples.com.