Java: How to check if object is null?

I am creating an application which retrieves images from the web. In case the image cannot be retrieved another local image should be used.

While trying to execute the following lines:

Drawable drawable = Common.getDrawableFromUrl(this, product.getMapPath());
if (drawable.equals(null)) {
  drawable = getRandomDrawable();
}

The line if(drawable.equals(null)) throws an exception if drawable is null.

Does anyone know how should the value of drawable be checked in order not to throw an exception in case it is null and retrieve the local image (execute drawable = getRandomDrawable())?

Solution 1:

Drawable drawable = Common.getDrawableFromUrl(this, product.getMapPath());
if (drawable == null) {
    drawable = getRandomDrawable();
}

The equals() method checks for value equality, which means that it compares the contents of two objects. Since null is not an object, this crashes when trying to compare the contents of your object to the contents of null.

The == operator checks for reference equality, which means that it looks whether the two objects are actually the very same object. This does not require the objects to actually exist; two nonexistent objects (null references) are also equal.

Solution 2:

Edited Java 8 Solution:

final Drawable drawable = 
    Optional.ofNullable(Common.getDrawableFromUrl(this, product.getMapPath()))
        .orElseGet(() -> getRandomDrawable());

You can declare drawable final in this case.

As Chasmo pointed out, Android doesn't support Java 8 at the moment. So this solution is only possible in other contexts.

Solution 3:

I use this approach:

if (null == drawable) {
  //do stuff
} else {
  //other things
}

This way I find improves the readability of the line - as I read quickly through a source file I can see it's a null check.

With regards to why you can't call .equals() on an object which may be null; if the object reference you have (namely 'drawable') is in fact null, it doesn't point to an object on the heap. This means there's no object on the heap on which the call to equals() can succeed.

Best of luck!

Solution 4:

DIY

private boolean isNull(Object obj) {
    return obj == null;
}

Drawable drawable = Common.getDrawableFromUrl(this, product.getMapPath());
if (isNull(drawable)) {
    drawable = getRandomDrawable();
}

Solution 5:

if (yourObject instanceof yourClassName) will evaluate to false if yourObject is null.