Calling COUNT function on empty field returns empty string instead of 0

            IRemoteCache<int, User> userCache = remoteManager.GetCache<int, User>(NAMED_CACHE);

            QueryRequest qr = new QueryRequest();
            qr.JpqlString = "select u.name, count(u.age) from sample_bank_account.User u group by u.name";

            QueryResponse result = userCache.Query(qr);

            List<Object[]> projections = unwrapWithProjection(result);

            Assert.AreEqual(2, projections.Count);
            Assert.AreEqual("John" ,projections.ElementAt(0)[0]);
            Assert.AreEqual(1, projections.ElementAt(0)[1]);
            Assert.AreEqual("Spider", projections.ElementAt(1)[0]);
            Assert.AreEqual(0, projections.ElementAt(1)[1]);
           //^^^^ fails here, the the element is an empty string instead of 0