Meme transcription: Panel 1. Two images of JSON, one is the empty object, one is an object in which the key name maps to the value null. Caption: “Corporate needs you to find the difference between this picture and this picture”
Panel 2. The Java backend dev answers, “They’re the same picture.”
Just what every programming language needs, not one, but two types of null! Because nobody ever said one type was difficult enough.
If I see any of you make this distinction matter for anything other than "PUT vs. PATCH" semantics I'm going to be very angry.
I do this constantly.
undefined: not retrieved yet.null: Error when retrieving. Makes it easy to reason about what the current state of the data is without the need for additional status flags.