but I'm sure you realize that there are situations where you want to call the function whether you have the object or not, and handle a null in a special way.Originally Posted by grumpy
but I'm sure you realize that there are situations where you want to call the function whether you have the object or not, and handle a null in a special way.
Sure but that is a design choice. Either way, a decision has to be made as to whether an object is valid. The only difference is whether caller or callee makes that determination. Sometimes it makes sense for the caller to do it (eg if a function is called many times and supplied with the same object) and sometimes for the callee to do it.
