Why does the Java compiler sometimes allow the unboxing of null?

Question

For example:

int anInt = null;

fails at compile time but

public static void main(String[] args) {
  for (int i = 0; i < 10;          


        

Answer 1

You can't assign null to an int

    int anInt = null;

Java allows this since you are not assigning null to an int

    System.out.println("" + getSomeVal()); //null was just converted to a srting and was printed

If you perform this, you can get the error

    int anInt = getSomeVal();