Annotation @NotEmpty doesn't check if String is null

Question

I'm trying to validate some DTOs with javax.validation, but it seems that the annotation @NotEmpty doesn't check of the parameter is null.

Here are my clases:

Person.class

public class Person {

    @NotEmpty(message = "mandatoryParametersMissing")
    private String name;

    @NotNull(message = "mandatoryParametersMissing")
    @Valid
    private Job job;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public Job getJob() {
        return job;
    }

    public void setJob(Job job) {
        this.job = job;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Person [name=" + name + ", job=" + job + "]";
    }

}

Job.class

public class Job {

    @NotEmpty(message = "mandatoryParametersMissing")
    private String name;

    @NotNull(message = "mandatoryParametersMissing")
    private Integer salary;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public Integer getSalary() {
        return salary;
    }

    public void setSalary(Integer salary) {
        this.salary = salary;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Job [name=" + name + ", salary=" + salary + "]";
    }

}

When I try to pass the following JUnit testS I get failures:

@Test(expected = BusinessServiceException.class)
    public void testJobNameNull() {
        Person samuel = new Person();
        samuel.setName("Samuel Antequera");
        Job programmer = new Job();

        programmer.setSalary(18000);
        samuel.setJob(programmer);

        validatePerson(samuel);
    }

And here's the method that validates the DTOs:

public void validatePerson(Person in) {
    ValidatorFactory factory = Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory();
    Validator validator = factory.getValidator();

    Set<ConstraintViolation<Person>> violations = validator.validate(in);
    for (ConstraintViolation<Person> violation : violations) {
        throw new BusinessServiceException(violation.getMessage(), violation.getPropertyPath().toString());
    }
}

I was under the impression that @NotEmpty first checked if the parameter was null, ¿am I wrong?

PD: Here are the dependencies I use:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
        <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.1.Final</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate.validator</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
        <version>6.1.0.Alpha5</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate.validator</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-validator-annotation-processor</artifactId>
        <version>6.1.0.Alpha5</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.el</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1-b06</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.6</version>
    </dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>junit</groupId>
    <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
    <version>4.12</version>
</dependency>

It seems the problem was with the dependencies, for some reason in the class path the jar version of validation-api was wrong I simply deleted all the jars in the class path and added them again and the error disappears.

Answer 1

@NotEmpty internally checks for minimum size of 1 and null.On documentation of @NotEmpty, it is clearly mentioned that :
"Asserts that the annotated string, collection, map or array is not {@code null} or empty."