Dart Null's

What is NULL?

Null is a universal non value indicator that a specific variable does not hold something.

Up to version 2.12, you could assign anything to be null.

Before 2.12 The type of errors that come from using nulls, is that if you try to use to get for example the length of the string while it’s null will cause problems.

String possible = null;
possible.lengh; // THIS WOULD CAUSE BIG PROBLEMS, THROWS ERROR

The worst part of this errors is that they will only happen at RUNTIME when the user is using them. And we want as much has possible for errors to be at COMPILE time, so that we can fix them before reaching the users hands.

After 2.12, this is no longer possible to do.

String impossible = null;

Conditional Operator (?.)

Now, after 2.12 we get an compile time error that says something like:

The property length can’t be uncoditionally accessed because the receiver can be null.

To avoid this, one of the ways is to use the Conditional Operator (?.)

String? possible = null; // <-- its optional, null
print(possible?.length); // <-- is is not null access .length

We defined the variable has OPTIONAL/NULL using the String? and when we want to use it we say if there is something other than null use its .lenght method.

In this case the result would be null printed.

If there was something inside possible:

TIP:

String? possible = null; // Both lines are the same
String? possible;        // Both lines are the same

Best approach

String? possible = 'DARTH';
print(possible?.length); // 5

This would print 5.

Bang Operator (!)

You can also use the ! (BANG) operator in these situations. By using ! youre saying to the runtime, TRUST ME, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.

String? possible = null;
print(possible!.length); // ERROR

This will throw an error: Null check operator used on a null value.