Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In some programming language environments (at least one proprietary Lisp implementation, for example), [citation needed] the value used as the null pointer (called nil in Lisp) may actually be a pointer to a block of internal data useful to the implementation (but not explicitly reachable from user programs), thus allowing the same register to be used as a useful constant and a quick way of ...
Exception swallowing can also happen if the exception is handled and rethrown as a different exception, discarding the original exception and all its context. In this C# example, all exceptions are caught regardless of type, and a new generic exception is thrown, keeping only the message of the original exception.
The Perl mechanism for exception handling uses die to throw an exception when wrapped inside an eval {...}; block. After the eval, the special variable $@ contains the value passed from die. Perl 5.005 added the ability to throw objects as well as strings. This allows better introspection and handling of types of exceptions.
The implementation of exception handling in programming languages typically involves a fair amount of support from both a code generator and the runtime system accompanying a compiler. (It was the addition of exception handling to C++ that ended the useful lifetime of the original C++ compiler, Cfront. [18]) Two schemes are most common.
An exception handling mechanism allows the procedure to raise an exception [2] if this precondition is violated, [1] for example if the procedure has been called on an abnormal set of arguments. The exception handling mechanism then handles the exception. [3] The precondition, and the definition of exception, is subjective.
The language does not provide any explicit pointer manipulation operators. It is still possible for code to attempt to dereference a null reference (null pointer), however, which results in a run-time exception being thrown. The space occupied by unreferenced memory objects is recovered automatically by garbage collection at run-time. [20]
To expose dangling pointer errors, one common programming technique is to set pointers to the null pointer or to an invalid address once the storage they point to has been released. When the null pointer is dereferenced (in most languages) the program will immediately terminate—there is no potential for data corruption or unpredictable behavior.
In object-oriented computer programming, a null object is an object with no referenced value or with defined neutral (null) behavior.The null object design pattern, which describes the uses of such objects and their behavior (or lack thereof), was first published as "Void Value" [1] and later in the Pattern Languages of Program Design book series as "Null Object".