The null object pattern

The null object pattern is a design pattern that provides an object as a surrogate for the lack of an object of a given interface. Essentially, it provides default behavior in the absence of meaningful data or behavior. This pattern is particularly useful in scenarios where you’d expect an object but don’t have one, and don’t want to constantly check for null.

The problem with null checks

Imagine you’re developing a system where you have a series of operations to perform on a User object. Now, not every user might be initialized in the system, which often leads to this:

if (user != null)
{
    user.PerformOperation();
}

This might seem innocent for a single check. But when your code base is littered with such null checks, the code becomes verbose and less readable. The proliferation of null checks can also obscure the primary business logic, making the code base harder to maintain and understand.

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