Dev question about datatypes which may have null value conditions
I am researching a bug in our OpenSpan application. I think it may be related to handling null value test conditions. I have had basic training in OpenSpan development.
Is there deeper documentation which looks at handling of different datatypes and whether there is risk to using some datatypes if the value has not yet been "initialized" or populated?
mutual of omaha
US
Examples of how we are testing against null values include the use of the stringutils method IsNullOrEmpty, as well as with a flat out conditional statement like if x "= NULL". I do not know if there is much difference or under what conditions these values may actually be null.
What experiences have other developers had with null values?
Is there risk of memory leaks if we ignore or misuse such checks?
Pegasystems Inc.
US
There's not really any documentation pertaining to this; you could get some best practices advise from Services. In personal experience, most of the "regular" data types (int, string, etc.) are either initialized at compile time or allowed to be null. You'll always get an object reference not set to an instance of an object or a null value exception if you call on something that hasn't been ascribed a value, but more often than not you'll see these in relation to unmatched objects.