todate() function returning wrong result in expression rule

Question

Hi All, 
 We have just upgraded to Appian 20.4. I am not sure if the issue due to this but facing very strange scenario when using todate() function in an expression. 
 todate("08/01/2021")<=todate(null) --> this expression ideally should return false, but instead returning true. It was working as expected earlier. 
 
 Please advise. 
 
 Thanks and Regards, 
 Diksha

Mike Schmitt · Answer

yeah i feel you. my high-level "appian approved" answer to this (and also my preferred solution personally) would be that if you will be comparing two values and you need to gracefully handle the scenarios of one or the other of the values coming back of null in a predictable way, you would be advised to create an expression rule that explicitly handles the different use cases.