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This snippet throws an NullPointerException due to the fact that its unboxed to a primitive type and Long.longValue() is called, right?
Thats even easy to see if you have a snippet like this:
long value = (Long) null; But the NullPointerException is even harder to get in a more complex situation like this:
long propertyValue = (Long) obj.getProperty(propertyModel.getName()); So isn't there any possibility for the Java-Compiler to make a more comfortable Exception out of this? I would prefer an IllegalArgumentException with a message like "You're trying to cast a null-Object into a primitive type, this can't be done!"
Wouldn't this be more appropriate? What do you think? Is this even possible at runtime? Are we able to determine this cast? I haven't yet looked at the java bytecode. Maybe it could be used in a solution.
This question can be answered: I'd like to know if it's possible to achieve this behaviour!
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In Java, the java. lang. NullPointerException is thrown when a reference variable is accessed (or de-referenced) and is not pointing to any object. This error can be resolved by using a try-catch block or an if-else condition to check if a reference variable is null before dereferencing it.
What Causes NullPointerException. The NullPointerException occurs due to a situation in application code where an uninitialized object is attempted to be accessed or modified. Essentially, this means the object reference does not point anywhere and has a null value.
A null pointer exception is thrown when an application attempts to use null in a case where an object is required. These include: Calling the instance method of a null object. Accessing or modifying the field of a null object.
Answer: Some of the best practices to avoid NullPointerException are: Use equals() and equalsIgnoreCase() method with String literal instead of using it on the unknown object that can be null. Use valueOf() instead of toString() ; and both return the same result. Use Java annotation @NotNull and @Nullable.
According to the Java language specification, unboxing happens via calling Number.longValue(), Number.intValue(), etc. There is no special byte code magic happening, it's exactly the same as if you call those methods manually. Thus, the NullPointerException is the natural result of unboxing a null (and in fact mandated by the JLS).
Throwing a different exception would require checking for null twice during every unboxing conversion (once to determine whether to throw the special exception, and once implicitly when the method is actually called). I suppose the language designers didn't think it useful enough to warrant that.
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