Undocumented String.compareTo(null) NPE?

java string null compareto
Jérôme Verstrynge picture Jérôme Verstrynge · Aug 24, 2011 · Viewed 7.7k times · Source

The following little test throws an NPE:

public class Test {

    public static void  main(String[] args) {

        String a = "a";
        String b = null;

        System.out.println(a.compareTo(b));

    }

}

Yet, the Javadoc of compareTo() does not mention that the parameter cannot be null. This is strange, since Javadocs usually mentions when parameters cannot be null.

Is this just a glitch in the documentation or is there a more fundamental reason/twist I am missing?

Answer

Snicolas picture Snicolas · Aug 24, 2011

You can get some explanation when you look at the Comparable interface:

Note that null is not an instance of any class, and e.compareTo(null) should throw a NullPointerException even though e.equals(null) returns false.

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