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Handle Null In Dart

Before null Safety, it is hard to handle null values and cause errors in your program. You can handle null values in the following ways.

How To Allow Null Values​

If you want to allow null, you can add the question mark ? to the end of the variable’s type.

Example​

void main() {
  int? productId = null;
}

Assertion Operator In Dart​

If you want to assign a nullable value to a non-nullable variable, Dart will not allow you by default. In this situation you can use an exclamation symbol ! to force the compiler to tell the value is non-null.

Example​

void main() {
  String ? name;
  String firstName = name; // give error
  String lastName = name!; // it works
}

Null Aware Operators In Dart​

Dart gives a whole set of null-aware operators that can help you handle potentially null values.

If null operator ??​

  • Null aware assignment operator ??=
  • Null aware access operator ?
  • Null assertion operator !
  • Null aware method invocation operator ?

If Null Operator ??​

One of the best ways to handle null values is to use a double question mark ??, which is called the if null operator. This operator says if the value on the left is null go with the value on the right, if a value is not null do nothing.

Example​

A simple example of if null operator in dart.

Explained​

  • Here address is null, ?? will set status = No Address
  • Using ?? you can ensure that status can never be null.

The above code is equal to:​

Null-Aware Assignment Operator ??=​

Null-aware assignment operator in dart says if the value is null then it assigns value after ??=, else don’t assign any other value.

Example​

A simple example of a null aware assignment operator in dart.

Explained​

  • Here address is null, ?? will set address = USA
  • Using ??= you can ensure that address can never be null.

Null-Aware Access Operator ?.​

The null-aware access operator in the dart returns null if the left-hand side is null else it will return the property of the right hand.

Example​

A simple example of a null aware assignment operator in dart.

Explained​

  • Here age is null, so ?. operator prevents the code from crashing.
  • It returns null inside the print statement.

Null Assertion Operator !​

Sometimes dart doesn’t know whether a nullable value is null or not, but if you are sure that it is not null, you can use the null assertion operator!.

Note

You already learned that ! is not an operator before. The difference between not-operator ! and null assertion operator is you can use not-operator as a prefix. a!==2 and you can use null assertion operator as a postfix.

Example​

Here is the example of the null assertion operator in dart. Removing ! from code doesn’t work.

Explained​

  • Here you are 100% sure that it returns true, so you are using it.
  • If you can change the word to something other than water or sand, it won’t work.

This as bool is equivalent to an assertion operator ! but the difference is ! is shorter.


bool canIDrinkWater = canDrink("water") as bool;
Note

Wrong use of assertion operator ! may crash your program.

Here is an alternative to the assertion operator, and it doesn’t crash your program.


bool canIDrinkWater = canDrink("water") ?? true;

Late Keyword In Dart​

In some situations, variable, fields in class should be non-nullable, but you can’t assign a value immediately you can use a late keyword.

What Happen When You Assign Late Keywords​

  • You can’t assign value now.
  • You should assign a value before the variable is used.
void main() {
  late String name;
  name = "John";
  print(name);
}

If you don’t assign value to name it will give an error.

Late Example In Dart​

Here this code will give you an error to solve this issue simply, add a late keyword to the start of the line initializing secretNumber.


late int secretNumber = calculateSecretNumber();
Note

Using late means dart doesn’t initialize value right away, it only initializes when you access it for the first time. This is also called lazy loading.