[ARROW-5277] [C#] MemoryAllocator.Allocate(length: 0) should not return null

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.16.0
• Component/s: C#
• Labels: pull-request-available
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/21747
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Eric Erhardt
• Created: 07/May/19 15:45
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 07:39
• Resolved: 23/Jan/20 16:19

Description

See the conversation here.

We should change MemoryAllocator to not return `null` when the requested memory length is `0`. Instead, we should create a cached "NullObject" IMemoryOwner that has a no-op `Dispose` method, and always returns `Memory<T>.Empty`.

This way consuming code doesn't need to check for `null` being returned from MemoryAllocator.Allocate.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #6179