Java null String equals result

Question

Please help me how does the string.equals in java work with null value? Is there some problem with exceptions? Three cases:

boolean result1,result2, result3;

    //1st case
    String string1 = null;
    String string2 = null;
    result = string1.equals(string2);
    //2nd case
    String string1 = "something";
    String string2 = null;
    result2 = string1.equals(string2);
    //3rd case 
    String string1 = null;
    String string2 = "something";
    result3 = string1.equals(string2);

What the values of results are? I expect this values:

result1 is true;
result2 is false;
result3 is false;

Answer 1

You cannot use the dereference (dot, '.') operator to access instance variables or call methods on an instance if that instance is null. Doing so will yield a NullPointerException.

It is common practice to use something you know to be non-null for string comparison. For example, "something".equals(stringThatMayBeNull).