diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/CHANGELOG.md b/extensions/ql-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
index 057873f0376..678b977b25b 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ## [UNRELEASED]
 
 - Fix bug when removing databases where sometimes the source folder would not be removed from the workspace or the database files would not be removed from the workspace storage location. [#692](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/692)
+- Query results with no string representation will now be displayed with placeholder text in query results. Previously, they were omitted. [#694](https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/694)
 
 ## 1.3.7 - 24 November 2020
 
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/pure/messages.ts b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/pure/messages.ts
index 2c516b2e505..19bea311da3 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/pure/messages.ts
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/pure/messages.ts
@@ -150,6 +150,11 @@ export interface CompilationOptions {
    * Whether to disable toString values in the results.
    */
   noComputeToString: boolean;
+  /**
+   * Whether to ensure that elements that do not have a displayString
+   * get reported anyway. Useful for universal compilation options.
+   */
+  computeDefaultStrings: boolean;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/run-queries.ts b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/run-queries.ts
index df2f7fd30ed..0c8a09125e3 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/run-queries.ts
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/run-queries.ts
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ export class QueryInfo {
           localChecking: false,
           noComputeGetUrl: false,
           noComputeToString: false,
+          computeDefaultStrings: true
         },
         extraOptions: {
           timeoutSecs: qs.config.timeoutSecs
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query-test.ts b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query.test.ts
similarity index 92%
rename from extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query-test.ts
rename to extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query.test.ts
index 06ea19048c2..804e571b125 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query-test.ts
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/query.test.ts
@@ -13,9 +13,7 @@ import { ColumnValue } from '../../pure/bqrs-cli-types';
 import { FindDistributionResultKind } from '../../distribution';
 
 
-declare module 'url' {
-  export function pathToFileURL(urlStr: string): Url;
-}
+const baseDir = path.join(__dirname, '../../../test/data');
 
 const tmpDir = tmp.dirSync({ prefix: 'query_test_', keep: false, unsafeCleanup: true });
 
@@ -61,13 +59,19 @@ type QueryTestCase = {
 // Test cases: queries to run and their expected results.
 const queryTestCases: QueryTestCase[] = [
   {
-    queryPath: path.join(__dirname, '../data/query.ql'),
+    queryPath: path.join(baseDir, 'query.ql'),
     expectedResultSets: {
       '#select': [[42, 3.14159, 'hello world', true]]
     }
   },
   {
-    queryPath: path.join(__dirname, '../data/multiple-result-sets.ql'),
+    queryPath: path.join(baseDir, 'compute-default-strings.ql'),
+    expectedResultSets: {
+      '#select': [[{ label: '(no string representation)' }]]
+    }
+  },
+  {
+    queryPath: path.join(baseDir, 'multiple-result-sets.ql'),
     expectedResultSets: {
       'edges': [[1, 2], [2, 3]],
       '#select': [['s']]
@@ -75,7 +79,7 @@ const queryTestCases: QueryTestCase[] = [
   }
 ];
 
-describe('using the query server', function() {
+describe.only('using the query server', function() {
   before(function() {
     if (process.env['CODEQL_PATH'] === undefined) {
       console.log('The environment variable CODEQL_PATH is not set. The query server tests, which require the CodeQL CLI, will be skipped.');
@@ -92,12 +96,8 @@ describe('using the query server', function() {
   let cliServer: cli.CodeQLCliServer;
   const queryServerStarted = new Checkpoint<void>();
   after(() => {
-    if (qs) {
-      qs.dispose();
-    }
-    if (cliServer) {
-      cliServer.dispose();
-    }
+    qs?.dispose();
+    cliServer?.dispose();
   });
 
   it('should be able to start the query server', async function() {
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ describe('using the query server', function() {
       try {
         const qlProgram: messages.QlProgram = {
           libraryPath: [],
-          dbschemePath: path.join(__dirname, '../data/test.dbscheme'),
+          dbschemePath: path.join(baseDir, 'test.dbscheme'),
           queryPath: queryTestCase.queryPath
         };
         const params: messages.CompileQueryParams = {
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ describe('using the query server', function() {
             localChecking: false,
             noComputeGetUrl: false,
             noComputeToString: false,
+            computeDefaultStrings: true
           },
           queryToCheck: qlProgram,
           resultPath: COMPILED_QUERY_PATH,
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/run-queries.test.ts b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/run-queries.test.ts
index 042f66441f3..ab445836ce2 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/run-queries.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/src/vscode-tests/no-workspace/run-queries.test.ts
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ describe('run-queries', () => {
             localChecking: false,
             noComputeGetUrl: false,
             noComputeToString: false,
+            computeDefaultStrings: true
           },
           extraOptions: {
             timeoutSecs: 5
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/test/data/compute-default-strings.ql b/extensions/ql-vscode/test/data/compute-default-strings.ql
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..29ad7259748
--- /dev/null
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/test/data/compute-default-strings.ql
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+// Test that computeDefaultStrings is set correctly.
+
+newtype TUnit = MkUnit()
+
+class Unit extends TUnit {
+  Unit() { this = MkUnit() }
+
+  string toString() { none() }
+}
+
+from Unit u
+select u
diff --git a/extensions/ql-vscode/test/pure-tests/files.test.ts b/extensions/ql-vscode/test/pure-tests/files.test.ts
index 9cecf479307..5fb0593b38e 100644
--- a/extensions/ql-vscode/test/pure-tests/files.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/ql-vscode/test/pure-tests/files.test.ts
@@ -47,11 +47,12 @@ describe('files', () => {
   });
 
   it('should scan a directory', async () => {
-    const singleFile = path.join(dataDir, 'query.ql');
-    const otherFile = path.join(dataDir, 'multiple-result-sets.ql');
+    const file1 = path.join(dataDir, 'compute-default-strings.ql');
+    const file2 = path.join(dataDir, 'multiple-result-sets.ql');
+    const file3 = path.join(dataDir, 'query.ql');
 
     const result = await gatherQlFiles([dataDir]);
-    expect(result.sort()).to.deep.equal([[otherFile, singleFile], true]);
+    expect(result.sort()).to.deep.equal([[file1, file2, file3], true]);
   });
 
   it('should scan a directory and some files', async () => {
@@ -64,10 +65,12 @@ describe('files', () => {
   });
 
   it('should avoid duplicates', async () => {
-    const singleFile = path.join(dataDir, 'query.ql');
-    const otherFile = path.join(dataDir, 'multiple-result-sets.ql');
+    const file1 = path.join(dataDir, 'compute-default-strings.ql');
+    const file2 = path.join(dataDir, 'multiple-result-sets.ql');
+    const file3 = path.join(dataDir, 'query.ql');
 
-    const result = await gatherQlFiles([singleFile, dataDir, otherFile]);
-    expect(result.sort()).to.deep.equal([[singleFile, otherFile], true]);
+    const result = await gatherQlFiles([file1, dataDir, file3]);
+    result[0].sort();
+    expect(result.sort()).to.deep.equal([[file1, file2, file3], true]);
   });
 });