delete nil fields in the metric maker.

closes #1771

internal/models/makemetric.go

@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ func makemetric(
 		// Validate uint64 and float64 fields
 		// convert all int & uint types to int64
 		switch val := v.(type) {
+		case nil:
+			// delete nil fields
+			delete(fields, k)
 		case uint:
 			fields[k] = int64(val)
 			continue
@@ -127,9 +130,9 @@ func makemetric(
 				delete(fields, k)
 				continue
 			}
+		default:
+			fields[k] = v
 		}
-
-		fields[k] = v
 	}
 
 	var m telegraf.Metric

internal/models/running_input_test.go

@@ -29,6 +29,32 @@ func TestMakeMetricNoFields(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Nil(t, m)
 }
 
+// nil fields should get dropped
+func TestMakeMetricNilFields(t *testing.T) {
+	now := time.Now()
+	ri := RunningInput{
+		Config: &InputConfig{
+			Name: "TestRunningInput",
+		},
+	}
+
+	m := ri.MakeMetric(
+		"RITest",
+		map[string]interface{}{
+			"value": int(101),
+			"nil":   nil,
+		},
+		map[string]string{},
+		telegraf.Untyped,
+		now,
+	)
+	assert.Equal(
+		t,
+		fmt.Sprintf("RITest value=101i %d", now.UnixNano()),
+		m.String(),
+	)
+}
+
 // make an untyped, counter, & gauge metric
 func TestMakeMetric(t *testing.T) {
 	now := time.Now()