Contents
Can null be returned?
Returning null is usually the best idea if you intend to indicate that no data is available. An empty object implies data has been returned, whereas returning null clearly indicates that nothing has been returned.
Should I ever return null?
Returning null Creates More Work An ideal function, like an assistant cook, will encapsulate work and produce something useful. A function that returns a null reference achieves neither goal. Returning null is like throwing a time bomb into the software. Other code must a guard against null with if and else statements.
Should a method return null?
Why is it not good to return null?
The rationale behind not returning null is that you do not have to check for it and hence your code does not need to follow a different path based on the return value. You might want to check out the Null Object Pattern which provides more information on this.
When to return an empty pointer or null?
The idea here is that on error, you return an empty/blank version of whatever object type you would return normally. An empty array or string would work for those cases, for instance. Returning “NULL” is appropriate when you would normally return a pointer (since NULL is essentially an empty pointer).
When to return 0 instead of null in JavaScript?
Instead of returning null default values (0 or empty string or empty object) should be returned or an exception should be thrown. This is recommended in order to avoid many != null checks or to avoid NullPointerException. I really don’t understand how this helps.
Is it bad design to return NULL in a collection?
Collection c = getItems (); // Could potentially return null. // Two possible code paths now so harder to test. if (c != null) { for (Item item : c) { // Process item. } } Here’s the reason. In Clean Code by Robert Martin he writes that returning null is bad design when you can instead return, say, empty array.