Best practice for null testing

Asked Dec 19 '14 at 15:21

Active Dec 19 '14 at 15:21

Viewed 76 times

When working with objects you're not sure are null or not, what is the best practice?

object o = SomeMethodReturningAnObjectOrNull();

Is it better to check o like this:

if (o != null)
{
    //do something usefull
}

Or to make a try catch:

try
{
    //do something usefull
}
catch (NullReferenceException)
{

}

If it depends on the situation, what is the advantage of one or the other?

asked Dec 19 '14 at 15:21

skamlet

Obviously check for null. Why this question in first place? Btw question is subjective and no definite answer. – Sriram Sakthivel Dec 19 '14 at 15:23
6

A value being `null` is not **exceptional**. It is something you can test for, so do so. – CodeCaster Dec 19 '14 at 15:23
`NullReferenceException` means something went wrong (trying to reference `null` is a bug simply), so it is something different that some variable is `null`. – Konrad Kokosa Dec 19 '14 at 15:23

0 Answers0