diff --git a/src/obidmscolumn.c b/src/obidmscolumn.c
index df946fe..1fb5005 100644
--- a/src/obidmscolumn.c
+++ b/src/obidmscolumn.c
@@ -600,6 +600,7 @@ OBIDMS_column_p obi_create_column(OBIDMS_p dms,
 	int						column_dir_file_descriptor;
 	size_t 					header_size;
 	size_t 					data_size;
+	size_t					i, nb_elements;
 
 	new_column = NULL;
 
@@ -730,6 +731,43 @@ OBIDMS_column_p obi_create_column(OBIDMS_p dms,
 
 	strncpy(header->name, column_name, OBIDMS_MAX_COLNAME);
 
+	// Fill the data with NA values
+	nb_elements = nb_lines*nb_elements_per_line;
+	switch (type) {
+	case OBI_VOID:  // TODO;
+					break;
+
+	case OBI_INT:   for (i=0;i<nb_elements;i++)
+					{
+						*(((obiint_t*) (new_column->data)) + i) = OBIInt_NA;
+					}
+					break;
+
+	case OBI_FLOAT: for (i=0;i<nb_elements;i++)
+					{
+						*(((obifloat_t*) (new_column->data)) + i) = OBIFloat_NA;
+					}
+					break;
+
+	case OBI_BOOL:  for (i=0;i<nb_elements;i++)
+					{
+						*(((obibool_t*) (new_column->data)) + i) = OBIBool_NA;
+					}
+					break;
+
+	case OBI_CHAR:  for (i=0;i<nb_elements;i++)
+					{
+						*(((obichar_t*) (new_column->data)) + i) = OBIChar_NA;
+					}
+					break;
+
+	case OBI_IDX:   for (i=0;i<nb_elements;i++)
+					{
+						*(((obiidx_t*) (new_column->data)) + i) = OBIIdx_NA;
+					}
+					break;
+	}
+
 	free(column_file_name);
 	close(column_file_descriptor);
 
diff --git a/src/obitypes.h b/src/obitypes.h
index 92cd124..dd09133 100644
--- a/src/obitypes.h
+++ b/src/obitypes.h
@@ -14,8 +14,9 @@
 
 
 #define OBIInt_NA (INT32_MIN)
-#define OBIFloat_NA (NAN)
 #define OBIIdx_NA (SIZE_MAX)
+#define OBIFloat_NA (float_NA())
+#define OBIChar_NA (0)				// TODO not sure about this one as it can be impossible to distinguish from uninitialized values
 
 
 /**
@@ -47,6 +48,22 @@ typedef char obichar_t;
 typedef size_t obiidx_t;
 
 
+typedef union
+{
+    double value;
+    unsigned int word[2];
+} ieee_double;
+
+
+static double float_NA(void)	// as defined in R
+{
+    volatile ieee_double x;
+    x.word[0] = 0x7ff00000;
+    x.word[1] = 1954;
+    return x.value;
+}
+
+
 /**
  * @brief returns the memory size in bytes of an OBIType
  *