What are the benefits of “String”.equals(otherString)

Question

in a tutorial (for implementing a xml parser) i saw the following code:

if( \"NODENAME\".equals(xmlreader.getNodeName()) ) {  // getNodeName() returns java.l         


        

Answer 1

Its called a Yoda condition and used to avoid NullPointerException. Regarding its use in commercial projects, this is really a design decision - some developers want to be protected against null values whereas others want the fail fast mechanism offered by the conventional notation.