Wouldn't it actually be nice if we were able to identify the method's returned Device type as nullable (or non-nullable respectively) firsthand? Null-Safety in Java Not knowing about the possibility of a returned null reference is going to cause an awful NullPointerException in the subsequent call to getName. Well-documented methods will describe exactly that behavior, which still requires the developer to be very attentive.

The method getAudioDevice returns an object of type Device but might return null in order to denote the absence of that device on particular systems. Have a look at the following code example: Device audio = new DeviceProvider().getAudioDevice() Although Java relies on strong static typing, it doesn't let you distinguish between reference types that can and cannot hold a null reference. The null reference is often used to indicate absent values, which aren't obvious to the programmer in many cases. This almost always happens unintentionally in consequence of a bug, which is based on unrecognized references to null. Get your free copy for more insightful articles, industry statistics, and more!Īs Java developers, we're very accustomed to NullPointerExceptions (NPEs) that are thrown at the runtime of an application. This article is featured in the new DZone Guide to Java: Features, Improvements, & Updates.

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