specification for null handling in String, StringBuilder, etc.

[David Schlosnagle]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 9:04 AM, Alan Bateman <Alan.Bateman at oracle.com> wrote:
> 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

Sounds like a job for JSR-305 annotations if/when those are ever approved.

Thanks,
Dave