What would cause a node, to be null? (XML)

I have a grid, with a few drop down boxes, and for some reason, column 11's node is null and gives me an error when I try to save it.

table.setText = function(value, i, j){
    var node = this.getNode(i, j);
    alert ("i = " + i + " j = " + j + "node = " + node + "value = " + value);
    node.text = value;

Now the alert comes up as "I =3 J =11 Node=null Value=JT Peters"
I have other dropdown boxes in columns 2, 5, and 14, and they work fine, instead of 'null' its just blank instead.

I'm not sure how it works for 3 others, but just not this column, the node is 'null'.

Fixed it.
Looks like SQL was passing 'null' when my fields were blank.

So I just added the line.

SELECT ISNULL(Company, '') as Company, etc......

In my SQL statement.