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GeneralEnforcing null-checks in Java/Android applications Pin
Member 1351285711-Nov-17 19:52
Member 1351285711-Nov-17 19:52 

1. Rationale


Null references are considered to be one of the most expensive mistakes in IT design. It's not surprising that there are numerous efforts to solve it. Here are a couple of examples from the Java world:
* Kotlin fights it at the language level
* many tools try to report it as early as possible, for example, IntelliJ IDEA can be configured to warn us about a possible NPE.

Moreover, when the code below is compiled by the IDE, it automatically inserts null-checks, i.e. given the code snippet below
Java
public void service(@NotNull String input) {
    // Process the input
}

Resulting bytecode looks like if it's compiled from the following source:
Java
public void service(@NotNull String input) {
    if (input == null) {
        throw new NullPointerException("Argument for <a href="https://www.codeproject.com/Members/NOTNULL">@NotNull</a> parameter 'input' must not be null");
    }
    // Process the input
}

Kotlin really solves the problem but Java is still a very popular language, so, we have to deal with nullable values. It's not always convenient to use IntelliJ build system for compiling sources to get that null-checks and the code which explicitly ensures preconditions via checkNotNull() or explicit if (input == null) { throw new NullPointerException("<description>") } also looks not that appealing.

More common setup is to configure a build through Gradle/Maven/Ant. It would not harm to get IDE tips on possible null-related problems and that auto-generated runtime checks without explicitly putting them into code.

Current tool solves the second problem - it allows to add null-checks into *.class files during compilation based on source code annotations.

2. License


The project is licensed by MIT.

3. Design


The whole project is based on a Javac extension. It plugs into the compilation process and automatically inserts null-checks into the resulting bytecode. That can be used either explicitly from the command line or from Maven/Ant. Also, there is a Gradle plugin which simplifies the configuration for Gradle projects.

4. Usage

5. Settings


Even though it's possible to use the plugin with the default setup, there are a number of configuration options. They are described here

6. Project Resources


The documentation is available here.

The project is hosted on GitHub.

modified 14-Nov-17 1:43am.

GeneralRe: Enforcing null-checks in Java/Android applications Pin
jschell13-Nov-17 7:52
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GeneralRe: Enforcing null-checks in Java/Android applications Pin
Member 1351285713-Nov-17 19:45
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GeneralRe: Enforcing null-checks in Java/Android applications Pin
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