diff --git a/phoenix-core/src/it/java/org/apache/phoenix/end2end/ArrayIT.java b/phoenix-core/src/it/java/org/apache/phoenix/end2end/ArrayIT.java
index b7a2ad2..80396a6 100644
--- a/phoenix-core/src/it/java/org/apache/phoenix/end2end/ArrayIT.java
+++ b/phoenix-core/src/it/java/org/apache/phoenix/end2end/ArrayIT.java
@@ -870,6 +870,33 @@
     }
 
     @Test
+    public void testArrayWithVarCharArray() throws Exception {
+        Connection conn;
+        PreparedStatement stmt;
+        ResultSet rs;
+        long ts = nextTimestamp();
+        Properties props = PropertiesUtil.deepCopy(TEST_PROPERTIES);
+        props.setProperty(PhoenixRuntime.CURRENT_SCN_ATTRIB, Long.toString(ts + 10));
+        conn = DriverManager.getConnection(getUrl(), props);
+        conn.createStatement().execute("CREATE TABLE t ( k VARCHAR PRIMARY KEY, a VARCHAR ARRAY[])");
+        conn.close();
+
+        props.setProperty(PhoenixRuntime.CURRENT_SCN_ATTRIB, Long.toString(ts + 30));
+        conn = DriverManager.getConnection(getUrl(), props);
+        stmt = conn.prepareStatement("UPSERT INTO t VALUES('a',ARRAY['a',null])");
+        int res = stmt.executeUpdate();
+        assertEquals(1, res);
+        conn.commit();
+        conn.close();
+        props.setProperty(PhoenixRuntime.CURRENT_SCN_ATTRIB, Long.toString(ts + 40));
+        conn = DriverManager.getConnection(getUrl(), props);
+        rs = conn.createStatement().executeQuery("SELECT ARRAY_ELEM(a,2) FROM t");
+        assertTrue(rs.next());
+        assertEquals(null, rs.getString(1));
+        conn.close();
+    }
+
+    @Test
     public void testArraySelectSingleArrayElemWithCast() throws Exception {
         Connection conn;
         PreparedStatement stmt;
diff --git a/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PChar.java b/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PChar.java
index 6b26197..4170253 100644
--- a/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PChar.java
+++ b/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PChar.java
@@ -104,12 +104,12 @@
 
     @Override
     public Object toObject(byte[] bytes, int offset, int length, PDataType actualType, SortOrder sortOrder, Integer maxLength, Integer scale) {
-      if (!actualType.isCoercibleTo(this)) { // TODO: have isCoercibleTo that takes bytes, offset?
-        throwConstraintViolationException(actualType,this);
-      }
       if (length == 0) {
         return null;
       }
+      if (!actualType.isCoercibleTo(this)) {
+        throwConstraintViolationException(actualType, this);
+      }
       length = StringUtil.getUnpaddedCharLength(bytes, offset, length, sortOrder);
       if (sortOrder == SortOrder.DESC) {
         bytes = SortOrder.invert(bytes, offset, length);
diff --git a/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PVarchar.java b/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PVarchar.java
index fa3dbad..2575115 100644
--- a/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PVarchar.java
+++ b/phoenix-core/src/main/java/org/apache/phoenix/schema/types/PVarchar.java
@@ -59,12 +59,12 @@
   @Override
   public Object toObject(byte[] bytes, int offset, int length, PDataType actualType,
       SortOrder sortOrder, Integer maxLength, Integer scale) {
-    if (!actualType.isCoercibleTo(this)) {
-      throwConstraintViolationException(actualType, this);
-    }
     if (length == 0) {
       return null;
     }
+    if (!actualType.isCoercibleTo(this)) {
+      throwConstraintViolationException(actualType, this);
+    }
     if (sortOrder == SortOrder.DESC) {
       bytes = SortOrder.invert(bytes, offset, length);
       offset = 0;