Java Tips and Best practices to avoid NullPointerException in Java Applications

A NullPointerException in Java application is the best way to solve it and that is also key to write robust programs that can work smoothly. As it said “prevention is better than cure”, same is true with nasty NullPointerException. Thankfully by applying some defensive coding techniques and the following contracts between multiple parts of an application, you can avoid NullPointerException in Java to a good extent. By the way, this is the second post on NullPointerException in Javarevisited, In the last post, we have discussed the common causes of NullPointerException in Java and in this tutorial,  we will learn some Java coding techniques and best practices, which can be used to avoid NullPointerException in Java.

Following these Java tips also minimize the number of !=null check, which litter a lot of Java code. As an experienced Java programmer, you may be aware of some of these techniques and already following it in your project, but for freshers and intermediate developers, this can be good learning. 

By the way, if you know any other Java tips to avoid NullPointerException and reduce null checks in Java, then please share it with us.

Java Tips and Best practices to avoid NullPointerException

These are simple techniques, which is very easy to follow but have a significant impact on code quality and robustness. In my experience, just first tip is resulted in significant improvement in code quality. As I said earlier, if you know any other Java tips or best practice, which can help to reduce null check, then you can share with us by commenting on this article.

1. Call equals() and equalsIgnoreCase() method on known String literal rather unknown object

Always call equals() method on known String which is not null. Since equals() method is symmetric, calling a.equals(b) is same as calling b.equals(a), and that’s why many programmer don’t pay attention on object a and b. One side effect of this call can result in NullPointerException, if caller is null.

Object unknownObject = null;

//wrong way - may cause NullPointerException

if(unknownObject.equals("knownObject")){

   System.err.println("This may result in NullPointerException if unknownObject is null");

}

//right way - avoid NullPointerException even if unknownObject is null

if("knownObject".equals(unknownObject)){

    System.err.println("better coding avoided NullPointerException");

}

This is the easiest Java tip or best practice to avoid NullPointerException, but results in tremendous improvement, because of equals()being a common method. See Java Programming courses for beginners to learn more about the equals method and other essential Java concepts. 

2. Prefer valueOf() over toString() where both return same result

Since calling toString() on null object throws NullPointerException, if we can get same value by calling valueOf() then prefer that, as passing null to  valueOf() returns "null", specially in case of wrapper classes  like Integer, Float, Double or BigDecimal.

BigDecimal bd = getPrice();

System.out.println(String.valueOf(bd)); //doesn’t throw NPE

System.out.println(bd.toString()); //throws "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException"

Follow this Java tips, if you are unsure about object being null or not.

3. Using null safe methods and libraries

There are lot of open source library out there, which does the heavy lifting of checking null for you. One of the most common one is StringUtils from Apache commons. You can use StringUtils.isBlank(), isNumeric(), isWhiteSpace() and other utility methods without worrying of  NullPointerException.

//StringUtils methods are null safe, they don't throw NullPointerException

System.out.println(StringUtils.isEmpty(null));

System.out.println(StringUtils.isBlank(null));

System.out.println(StringUtils.isNumeric(null));

System.out.println(StringUtils.isAllUpperCase(null));

Output:

true

true

false

false

But before reaching any conclusion don't forget to read the documentation of Null safe methods and classes. This is another Java best practice, which doesn't require much effort, but result in great improvements. You can also see these advanced core Java courses to learn more about writing better Java code and best practices. 

4. Avoid returning null from a method, instead, return an empty collection or an empty array.

This Java best practice or tips is also mentioned by Joshua Bloch in his book Effective Java which is another good source of better programming in Java. By returning an empty collection or empty array you make sure that basic calls like size(), length() don't fail with NullPointerException. Collections class provides convenient empty List, Set, and Map as Collections.EMPTY_LIST, Collections.EMPTY_SET and Collections.EMPTY_MAP which can be used accordingly. 

Here is a code example

public List getOrders(Customer customer){

   List result = Collections.EMPTY_LIST;

   return result;

}

Similarly, you can use Collections.EMPTY_SET and Collections.EMPTY_MAP instead of returning null.

5.  Use of annotation @NotNull and @Nullable

While writing method you can define contracts about nullability, by declaring whether a method is null safe or not, by using annotations like @NotNull and @Nullable. Modern days compiler, IDE or tool can read this annotation and assist you to put a missing null check, or may inform you about an unnecessary null check, which is cluttering your code. IntelliJ IDE and findbugs already supports such annotation. 

These annotations are also part of JSR 305, but even in the absence of any tool or IDE support, this  annotation itself work as documentation. By looking @NotNull and @Nullable, programmer can himself decide whether to check for null or not. 

By the way ,this is relatively new best practice for Java programmers and it will take some time to get adopted.

6.  Avoid unnecessary autoboxing and unboxing in your code

Despite of other disadvantages like creating temporary object, autoboxing are also prone to NullPointerException, if the wrapper class object is null. For example,  following code will fail with NullPointerException if person doesn't have phone number and instead return null.

Person ram = new Person("ram");

int phone = ram.getPhone();

Not just equality but < , > can also throw NullPointerException if used along autoboxing and unboxing. See this article to learn more pitfalls of autoboxing and unboxing in Java.

7. Follow Contract and define reasonable default value

One of the best way to avoid NullPointerException in Java is as simple as defining contracts and following them. Most of the NullPointerException occurs because Object is created with incomplete information or all required dependency is not provided. If you don't allow to create incomplete object and gracefully deny any such request you can prevent lots of NullPointerException down the road. 

Similarly if  Object is allowed to be created, than you should work with reasonable default value. for example an Employee object can not be created without id and name, but can have an optional phone number. 

Now if Employee doesn't have phone number than instead of returning null, return default value like zero, but that choice has to be carefully taken sometime checking for null is easy rather than calling an invalid number. 

On the same note, by defining what can be null and what can not be null, caller can make an informed decision. The choice of failing fast or accepting null is also an important design decision you need to take and adhere consistently.

8.Use Non-Null constraints on Database

If you are using database for storing your domain object such as Customers, Orders etc than you should define your null-ability constraints on database itself. Since database can acquire data from multiple sources, having null-ability check in DB will ensure data integrity. Maintaining null constraints on database will also help in reducing null check in Java code. While loading objects from database you will be sure, which field can be null and which field is not null, this will minimize unnecessary != null check in code.

9. Use Null Object Pattern

This is another way of avoiding NullPointerExcpetion in Java. If a method returns an object, on which caller, perform some operations e.g. Collection.iterator() method returns Iterator, on which caller performs traversal. Suppose if a caller doesn’t have any Iterator, it can return Null object instead of null. 

The Null object is a special object, which has different meaning in different context, for example, here an empty Iterator, calling hasNext() on which returns false, can be a null object. 

Similarly in case of method, which returns Container or Collection types, empty object should be used instead of returning null. I am planning to write a separate article on Null Object pattern, where I will share few more examples of NULL objects in Java.

That’s all guys, these are a couple of easy-to-follow Java tips and best practices to avoid NullPointerException. You would appreciate, how useful these tips can be, without too much effort. If you are using any other tip to avoid this exception, which is not included in this list, then please share with us via comment, and I will include them here.