[thelist] Friday Freebies, part II

[Chris Danek]

<tip author="Chris Danek [cdanek at bdsinc.com]" type="Java">
	Don't chain java functions. You are just asking for nullpointer exceptions:

bad:
	if (someObject.getName().getAge().add().giveRaise().isStupid())

good:
	Object o = someObject.getName();
		//you should check it for null here if it's going to happen
	Object o2 = o.getAge();
		//ditto
	Object o3 = o2.add();
		//ditto
	Object o4 = o3.giveRaise();
		//ditto
	if (o4.isStupid())

Trust me on this now. It's longer but it will catch -all- your nullpointer
exceptions. This is good practice in the long run, and will make other
people think you are good when they look through your code (and coversely,
curse at you when you don't).
</tip>

cd