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  3. .NET and the nullable configuration

.NET and the nullable configuration

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  • C Chris Maunder

    We do, and at first I hated it, but now I've embraced it. We find it cuts down on lots of null-ref opportunities. Sure, it can be annoying sometimes, but the occasional "!" on the end of a var, combined with the much nicer "if x is not null" makes the code very clear. Assuming you know what a trailing ! is...

    cheers Chris Maunder

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    Marc Clifton
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

    Chris Maunder wrote:

    Assuming you know what a trailing ! is

    You nailed it on its ! head. Time to google. Technology keeps leaping forward and I am stumbling around trying to keep up while at the same time wondering why I'm trying to keep up. :laugh:

    Latest Articles:
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    • M Marc Clifton

      Chris Maunder wrote:

      Assuming you know what a trailing ! is

      You nailed it on its ! head. Time to google. Technology keeps leaping forward and I am stumbling around trying to keep up while at the same time wondering why I'm trying to keep up. :laugh:

      Latest Articles:
      A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

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      Chris Maunder
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      I hear ya. Reminds me of the 2 day long conversation Matthew and I had about the extra negation inif not "!arg_name:enableGPU=!" == "!arg_name!". I didn't see the double negation. He's pointing at his screen (over FaceTime) saying "there!". The issue was the "!" meant delayed expansion of a variable substitution in the Batch file, but to any reasonable developer it's "not arg_name". We imbue symbols with way too much meaning.

      cheers Chris Maunder

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      • M Marc Clifton

        Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

        Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

        Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

        Dereference of a possibly null reference.

        Possible null reference assignment.

        Nullable value type may be null.

        And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

        Latest Articles:
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        dazfuller
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        All the time, and I fix the warnings if they come up. It’s greatly reduced the number of null exceptions that get thrown. I’d prefer it though if they were reported as build failures by default.

        Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines

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        • M Marc Clifton

          Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

          Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

          Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

          Dereference of a possibly null reference.

          Possible null reference assignment.

          Nullable value type may be null.

          And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

          Latest Articles:
          SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
          An SVG Analog Clock

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          Vaso Elias
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          I have been using it on all of my work and hobby projects since it was introduced to .NET. #nullable #enable 🤣.

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • M Marc Clifton

            Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

            Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

            Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

            Dereference of a possibly null reference.

            Possible null reference assignment.

            Nullable value type may be null.

            And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

            Latest Articles:
            SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
            An SVG Analog Clock

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            Adam ONeil Travelers Rest SC
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            Agree these warnings are pretty annoying in a project that didn't start out using nullable ref types correctly from the start. I have a large project in this situation, and fixing all these warnings is pretty daunting, requiring significant rework and refactoring. But I've come to see the value of using nullable ref types, so I've adopted it in smaller projects, and have been using it going forward. It's just not feasible to retrofit in all cases.

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • M Marc Clifton

              Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

              Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

              Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

              Dereference of a possibly null reference.

              Possible null reference assignment.

              Nullable value type may be null.

              And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

              Latest Articles:
              SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
              An SVG Analog Clock

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              R Offline
              rallets
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              Yes, I use it, and I like it very much. Removed all possible NRE, and it's perfect to make sure juniors do not introduce tons of bugs. Sometimes a IF xx != null is enough, some other times we need "!", I hope the compiler could become smarter like Typescript is.

              J 1 Reply Last reply
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              • M Marc Clifton

                Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

                Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

                Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

                Dereference of a possibly null reference.

                Possible null reference assignment.

                Nullable value type may be null.

                And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

                Latest Articles:
                SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
                An SVG Analog Clock

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                obermd
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                This entire push to eliminate Null is misguided. The reason is that in the real world sometimes you really have no information, which is what Null represents. Look at numeric data types, zero is not the same as NULL. Zero is a value but NULL represents no value. This is a fundamental semantic difference.

                J L 2 Replies Last reply
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                • L lmoelleb

                  No one is suggesting you should not use null. The nullable check makes it explicit where you intend to use it - just as it already is for value types.

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                  J Offline
                  jschell
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #22

                  lmoelleb wrote:

                  makes it explicit where you intend to use it

                  Your assumption is that I do not understand what it does. You are incorrect in that assumption.

                  L 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • R rallets

                    Yes, I use it, and I like it very much. Removed all possible NRE, and it's perfect to make sure juniors do not introduce tons of bugs. Sometimes a IF xx != null is enough, some other times we need "!", I hope the compiler could become smarter like Typescript is.

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    jschell
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    rallets wrote:

                    and it's perfect to make sure juniors do not introduce tons of bugs

                    Null pointers are not significant, to me, in production. Logic errors however are. And the only way to prevent that for juniors and seniors is meaningful code reviews.

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                    • O obermd

                      This entire push to eliminate Null is misguided. The reason is that in the real world sometimes you really have no information, which is what Null represents. Look at numeric data types, zero is not the same as NULL. Zero is a value but NULL represents no value. This is a fundamental semantic difference.

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      jschell
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      Generally the idea is thus... Someone misused it - thus it must be a problem. Then they come up with an idiom that could fix it, that single problem, while introducing other potential problems (like using magic values for no value) and then proclaim that the world is a wonderful place. Thus hoping that a technology fix can absolve them of relying on process (non-technology) solutions which have been proven (studies) to reduce problems.

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                      • J jschell

                        lmoelleb wrote:

                        makes it explicit where you intend to use it

                        Your assumption is that I do not understand what it does. You are incorrect in that assumption.

                        L Offline
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                        lmoelleb
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        Then I misunderstood your post sorry - and I still have no idea what you where trying to say.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • M Marc Clifton

                          Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

                          Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

                          Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

                          Dereference of a possibly null reference.

                          Possible null reference assignment.

                          Nullable value type may be null.

                          And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

                          Latest Articles:
                          SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
                          An SVG Analog Clock

                          Y Offline
                          Y Offline
                          Yortw
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          Not using .Net 7 yet, but using this in .Net 4.8, .Net Core 31, 5, and 6. Yeah, the warnings can be annoying, but the benefit can be significant too. Especially with junior devs who aren't used to null checking everywhere/don't have the experience to spot all the potential problems... but it's good for us oldies too, everybody misses stuff sometimes. The first warning in that list is the one that annoys me most. There are several potential work arounds depending on the specifics, but I often feel none are good :(

                          1 Reply Last reply
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                          • M Marc Clifton

                            You and others are convincing me that I should just bite the bullet and fix the code. ;)

                            Latest Articles:
                            A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

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                            Paul Sanders the other one
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            I suppose it's a bit like `const`. You can't just sprinkle a few around the place, you have to go all-in.

                            Paul Sanders. If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal. Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • M Marc Clifton

                              Does anyone actually use .NET 7 with enable? I find this option makes life such a PITA that I always go into the .csproj file and disable it. The warnings are non-stop:

                              Non-nullable property 'foo' must contain a non-null value when exiting constructor. Consider declaring the property as nullable

                              Converting null literal or possible null value to non-nullable type.

                              Dereference of a possibly null reference.

                              Possible null reference assignment.

                              Nullable value type may be null.

                              And that's just a partial list, I believe. And that last one, "Nullable value type may be null" is the most amusing one. Seriously, if you have the "Nullable" option enabled, do you actually fix all those warning?

                              Latest Articles:
                              SVG Grids: Squares, Triangles, Hexagons with scrolling, sprites and simple animation examples
                              An SVG Analog Clock

                              Z Offline
                              Z Offline
                              zezba9000
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              It only makes sense for ASP.NET services or maybe new code bases that its critical you don't have null. .NETFW, Unity3D or other C# projects that heavily use older .NET frameworks its a nightmare. Only new code that uses new APIs does it work well.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • O obermd

                                This entire push to eliminate Null is misguided. The reason is that in the real world sometimes you really have no information, which is what Null represents. Look at numeric data types, zero is not the same as NULL. Zero is a value but NULL represents no value. This is a fundamental semantic difference.

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Lost User
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                I fully agree with everything you wrote, however, nullable checking is not necessarily about eliminating the use of null per se. It's about telling things that can legitimately be null (then it reminds you to check) apart from things which should never be null (then it reminds you to not put a null in there).

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