# transaction only does writes of existing values, without making any
# real changes, we will drop the whole transaction later in
# ovsdb_idl_txn_commit().)
- if not column.alert and row._data.get(column.name) == datum:
+ if not column.alert and row._data and row._data.get(column.name) == datum:
new_value = row._changes.get(column.name)
if new_value is None or new_value == datum:
return