Best way to check for null values in Java?

Question

Before calling a function of an object, I need to check if the object is null, to avoid throwing a NullPointerException.

What is the best way to go abou

Answer 1

We can use Object.requireNonNull static method of Object class. Implementation is below

public void someMethod(SomeClass obj) {
    Objects.requireNonNull(obj, "Validation error, obj cannot be null");
}

Answer 2

As others have said #4 is the best method when not using a library method. However you should always put null on the left side of the comparison to ensure you don't accidentally assign null to foo in case of typo. In that case the compiler will catch the mistake.

// You meant to do this
if(foo != null){

// But you made a typo like this which will always evaluate to true
if(foo = null)

// Do the comparison in this way
if(null != foo)

// So if you make the mistake in this way the compiler will catch it
if(null = foo){

// obviously the typo is less obvious when doing an equality comparison but it's a good habit either way
if(foo == null){
if(foo =  null){

Answer 3

If at all you going to check with double equal "==" then check null with object ref like

if(null == obj) 

instead of

if(obj == null)

because if you mistype single equal if(obj = null) it will return true (assigning object returns success (which is 'true' in value).

Answer 4

The last and the best one. i.e LOGICAL AND

  if (foo != null && foo.bar()) {
    etc...
}

Because in logical &&

it is not necessary to know what the right hand side is, the result must be false

Prefer to read :Java logical operator short-circuiting

Answer 5

• Do not catch NullPointerException. That is a bad practice. It is better to ensure that the value is not null.
• Method #4 will work for you. It will not evaluate the second condition, because Java has short-circuiting (i.e., subsequent conditions will not be evaluated if they do not change the end-result of the boolean expression). In this case, if the first expression of a logical AND evaluates to false, subsequent expressions do not need to be evaluated.

Answer 6

I would say method 4 is the most general idiom from the code that I've looked at. But this always feels a bit smelly to me. It assumes foo == null is the same as foo.bar() == false.

That doesn't always feel right to me.