What is the difference between a null string (String s = null) and an empty string (String s = "")?
This is what I have:
String s1 = ""; //print statement does not print any thing for s1 but s1.length()=0
String s2 = null;//print statement prints "null" for s2 but s2.length() gives exception
What does it mean?
This question is related to
java
string
null
nullpointerexception
When Object variables are initially used in a language like Java, they have absolutely no value at all - not zero, but literally no value - that is null
For instance: String s;
If you were to use s, it would actually have a value of null, because it holds absolute nothing.
An empty string, however, is a value - it is a string of no characters.
String s; //Inits to null
String a =""; //A blank string
Null is essentially 'nothing' - it's the default 'value' (to use the term loosely) that Java assigns to any Object variable that was not initialized.
Null isn't really a value - and as such, doesn't have properties. So, calling anything that is meant to return a value - such as .length(), will invariably return an error, because 'nothing' cannot have properties.
To go into more depth, by creating s1 = ""; you are initializing an object, which can have properties, and takes up relevant space in memory. By using s2; you are designating that variable name to be a String, but are not actually assigning any value at that point.
No method can be invoked on a object which is assigned a NULL value. It will give a nullPointerException. Hence, s2.length() is giving an exception.
Null means nothing. Its just a literal. Null is the value of reference variable. But empty string is blank.It gives the length=0. Empty string is a blank value,means the string does not have any thing.
Source: Stackoverflow.com