diff --git a/src/caoscrawler/converters.py b/src/caoscrawler/converters.py
index c690da172ef36f7e1fdbe1fef22b25d18fabc677..6c63dc622b6d26ff1eb1ac69f5143d7b2b61b338 100644
--- a/src/caoscrawler/converters.py
+++ b/src/caoscrawler/converters.py
@@ -432,6 +432,7 @@ class Converter(object, metaclass=ABCMeta):
             return
         for transformer_key, transformer in self.definition["transform"].items():
             in_value = replace_variables(transformer["in"], values)
+            out_value = in_value
 
             for tr_func_el in transformer["functions"]:
                 if not isinstance(tr_func_el, dict):
diff --git a/unittests/test_transformers.py b/unittests/test_transformers.py
index e7fae484c1a0010d952809fc502e25a02bfe6ec5..4ed12751d9052c839aa4db4abd586c419bed1018 100644
--- a/unittests/test_transformers.py
+++ b/unittests/test_transformers.py
@@ -46,6 +46,38 @@ from pytest import raises
 UNITTESTDIR = Path(__file__).parent
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def converter_registry():
+    converter_registry: dict[str, dict[str, str]] = {
+        "Directory": {
+            "converter": "DirectoryConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "MarkdownFile": {
+            "converter": "MarkdownFileConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "Date": {
+            "converter": "DateElementConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "DictElement": {
+            "converter": "DictElementConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "TextElement": {
+            "converter": "TextElementConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "ListElement": {
+            "converter": "ListElementConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+        "JSONFile": {
+            "converter": "JSONFileConverter",
+            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
+    }
+
+    for key, value in converter_registry.items():
+        module = importlib.import_module(value["package"])
+        value["class"] = getattr(module, value["converter"])
+    return converter_registry
+
+
 def test_simple_transformer():
     """
     Test the correct list of returned records by the scanner using the
@@ -82,38 +114,6 @@ def test_simple_transformer():
             assert False
 
 
-@pytest.fixture
-def converter_registry():
-    converter_registry: dict[str, dict[str, str]] = {
-        "Directory": {
-            "converter": "DirectoryConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "MarkdownFile": {
-            "converter": "MarkdownFileConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "Date": {
-            "converter": "DateElementConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "DictElement": {
-            "converter": "DictElementConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "TextElement": {
-            "converter": "TextElementConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "ListElement": {
-            "converter": "ListElementConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-        "JSONFile": {
-            "converter": "JSONFileConverter",
-            "package": "caoscrawler.converters"},
-    }
-
-    for key, value in converter_registry.items():
-        module = importlib.import_module(value["package"])
-        value["class"] = getattr(module, value["converter"])
-    return converter_registry
-
-
 def test_apply_replace(converter_registry):
     cfood_def = {"type": 'ListElement', "match_name": ".*",
                  'transform': {'test': {'in': '$a', 'out': '$b', 'functions': [{
@@ -146,3 +146,21 @@ def test_apply_replace_from_def(converter_registry):
 
     conv.apply_transformers(values, transformer_functions)
     assert values['b'] == "16:45"
+
+
+def test_empty_functions_list(converter_registry):
+    cfood_def = {"type": 'ListElement',
+                 "match_name": ".*",
+                 'transform': {'test': {'in': '$a', 'out': '$b',
+                                        'functions': []}}}
+    values = GeneralStore()
+    values["a"] = "16_45"
+
+    # transformer_functions  = create_transformer_registry(crawler_definition)
+    transformer_functions = {"replace": replace}
+
+    conv = ListElementConverter(definition=cfood_def, name='test',
+                                converter_registry=converter_registry)
+
+    conv.apply_transformers(values, transformer_functions)
+    assert values['b'] == "16_45"