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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".
The C++ Standard Library's associative containers (std::unordered_map and std::map) use operator[] to get the value associated to a key. If there is nothing associated to this key, it will construct it and value initialize [4] [unreliable source] [failed verification] the value.
The observer design pattern is a behavioural pattern listed among the 23 well-known "Gang of Four" design patterns that address recurring design challenges in order to design flexible and reusable object-oriented software, yielding objects that are easier to implement, change, test and reuse.
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.
Common exceptions include an invalid argument (e.g. value is outside of the domain of a function), [5] an unavailable resource (like a missing file, [6] a network drive error, [7] or out-of-memory errors [8]), or that the routine has detected a normal condition that requires special handling, e.g., attention, end of file. [9]
Nullable types are a feature of some programming languages which allow a value to be set to the special value NULL instead of the usual possible values of the data type.In statically typed languages, a nullable type is an option type, [citation needed] while in dynamically typed languages (where values have types, but variables do not), equivalent behavior is provided by having a single null ...
In an interactive log-file browser, the right thing to do might be to return the entry unparsed, so the user can see it—but in an automated log-summarizing program, the right thing to do might be to supply null values for the unreadable fields, but abort with an error, if too many entries have been malformed.
An early attempt to guarantee void safety was the design of the Self programming language.. The Eiffel language is void-safe according to its ISO-ECMA standard; the void-safety mechanism is implemented in EiffelStudio starting with version 6.1 and using a modern syntax starting with version 6.4.