All selections for characteristic XYZ are invalid and have been discarded

Hello-

I am using VC 7.3 and I have a simple model with a BW Query where it has 1 input variable and I output the results to a table.  If I enter in an exact value, "01234", then I get the expected results (2 rows of data). However, if I enter in something like "faketext", I get an error message: "All selections for characteristic "XYZ" are invalid and have been discarded." and all the results show in the table like the query was run open ended.

In 7.0 Visual Composer this works as expected--no results are returned in the 2nd example where non-existent text was entered.

It appears that when I use the Filter port instead of the Variables port I get the results I am looking for however I dont think this is the solution.  Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Marty