What is null in Java?

Question

What is null?

Is null an instance of anything?

What set does null belong to?

How is it represented in the me

Answer 1

null in Java is like/similar to nullptr in C++.

Program in C++:

class Point
{
    private:
       int x;
       int y;
    public:
       Point(int ix, int iy)
       {
           x = ix;
           y = iy;
       }
       void print() { std::cout << '(' << x << ',' << y << ')'; }
};
int main()
{
    Point* p = new Point(3,5);
    if (p != nullptr)
    {
       p->print();
       p = nullptr;
    }
    else
    {
        std::cout << "p is null" << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

Same program in Java:

public class Point {
    private int x;
    private int y;
    public Point(int ix, int iy) {
        x = ix;
        y = iy;
    }
    public void print() { System.out.print("(" + x + "," + y + ")"); }
}
class Program
{
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Point p = new Point(3,5);
        if (p != null)
        {
            p.print();
            p = null;
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("p is null");
        }
    }
}

Now do you understand from the codes above what is null in Java? If no then I recommend you to learn pointers in C/C++ and then you will understand.

Note that in C, unlike C++, nullptr is undefined, but NULL is used instead, which can also be used in C++ too, but in C++ nullptr is more preferable than just NULL, because the NULL in C is always related to pointers and that's it, so in C++ the suffix "ptr" was appended to end of the word, and also all letters are now lowercase, but this is less important.

In Java every variable of type class non-primitive is always reference to object of that type or inherited and null is null class object reference, but not null pointer, because in Java there is no such a thing "pointer", but references to class objects are used instead, and null in Java is related to class object references, so you can also called it as "nullref" or "nullrefobj", but this is long, so just call it "null".

In C++ you can use pointers and the nullptr value for optional members/variables, i.e. member/variable that has no value and if it has no value then it equals to nullptr, so how null in Java can be used for example.