https://kuelzer.ca/tags/null/Recent content in Null on ilikeorangutansHugoen© 2026 Jakob KülzerSun, 12 Apr 2026 14:27:24 -0400https://kuelzer.ca/posts/2018/05/26/null-software-design-and-scalas-option/Sat, 26 May 2018 12:13:10 -0400https://kuelzer.ca/posts/2018/05/26/null-software-design-and-scalas-option/<p>For the past year or so I&rsquo;ve been writing a lot of Scala and fallen in love with its <code>Option</code> type and how it allows me to avoid <code>null</code>s. I reflected on <code>null</code>, why they are bad, and how optional types allow you to write more expressive code.</p> <h2 id="what-is-null">What is null?</h2> <p>Most programming languages have the concept of <code>null</code> (or <code>nil</code>) that represents the absence of a given value or object. At it&rsquo;s surface the absence of a value probably just translates into a pointer of value <code>0x0</code> or in languages that do not zero variables, a pointer anywhere into the memory. But aside from the implementation details the more interesting question is how <code>null</code> fits into a language&rsquo;s type system.</p>