specification for null handling in String, StringBuilder, etc.

[Alan Bateman]

On 12/06/2012 06:40, David Holmes wrote:
>
> This is very, very common in the core libraries. Rather than document 
> every single method where a null parameter triggers NPE they are often 
> covered (directly or indirectly) by blanket statements of the form 
> "unless otherwise stated ...".
Right, @throws NullPointerException can be considered clutter so it's 
common to see a blanket statement in the class or package description. 
In the case of String it already has:

  * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a <tt>null</tt> argument to a 
constructor
  * or method in this class will cause a {@link NullPointerException} to be
  * thrown.

This was added via 4703640 a long time ago.

Clearly a blanket statement like this doesn't make sense in all cases as 
there will be APIs that define many methods that allow null.

-Alan