Conditional coalesce script for sys_id creates record with sys_id of "-1" - Support and Troubleshooting

Conditional coalesce script for sys_id creates record with sys_id of "-1" Issue Customer was using below script to match sys_id with existing record and if not found will set value to -1.

var gr = new GlideRecord('u_manager_request');

gr.addQuery('u_employee_id', source.u_employee_id);

gr.orderByDesc('sys_created_on');

gr.query();

if(gr.next() && gr.u_active == true) { answer = gr.sys_id; //if a match exists, return the sys_id of the matching manager request } else { answer = -1; }

However it was observed that a record with sys_id = -1 gets created created on table - u_manager_request

Cause It is expected behaviour for instance to create a record with sys_id which provided explicitely.

e.g -

If we run the below script, an incident record will be created with sys_id = 12345678

var gr = new GlideRecord('incident'); gr.initialize(); gr.setWorkflow(false); gr.work_notes = 'pratik_test'; gr.short_description = 'testimg with sys id'; gr.sys_id = '12345678'; gr.insert();

Resolution If we are to use conditional coalesce for sys_id, we need to use method generateGuid() to instruct the ssystem to create new sys_id.

Customers can write script as -

var gr = new GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('number', source.some_unique_number); gr.query(); if(gr.next()){ return gr.sys_id; //if a match exists, return the sys_id of the matching Incident record } else { return GlideGuid.generate(null); } })(source);

Using similar script, we are returning the sys_id of existing record if match found, however if the sys_id doesn't match then we are instructing the instance to create new GUID (sys_id).