Null-Safety
See also Null References - The Billion Dollar Mistake by Tony Hoare, Tony Hoare, Null (SQL), Null reference, Null pointer, Null pointer exception, Nullable type, Null-Safety
TLDR: Null-safety is a programming concept designed to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with null references, a common cause of runtime errors such as null pointer exceptions. First introduced as a language feature in Kotlin in 2011 and later adopted by Swift and Dart, null-safety explicitly differentiates between nullable and non-nullable types, enforcing safer programming practices at compile time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_safety
Languages with built-in null-safety require developers to handle nullable values explicitly, often using annotations or type modifiers. For instance, in Kotlin, types are non-nullable by default, but nullable types can be declared using a `?`, such as `String?`. Safe call operators (`?.`) and null-coalescing operators (`?:`) allow developers to write concise, safe code that gracefully handles null cases, avoiding null pointer exceptions.
https://kotlinlang.org/docs/null-safety.html
Null-safety is particularly beneficial in large, collaborative projects where improper handling of null values can lead to cascading failures. Tools like SonarQube and Pylint integrate with null-safety features to detect potential issues during static analysis, ensuring code quality and reducing the likelihood of runtime errors.
https://www.sonarsource.com/products/sonarqube/
Adopting null-safety enhances both code readability and reliability. As more programming languages integrate this feature into their core, developers are increasingly empowered to write robust applications. By enforcing null-safety rules at compile time, these languages minimize the risks associated with null values, ensuring safer and more predictable execution.